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Police 'Program' Criticized
« on: March 04, 2006, 12:48:00 PM »
Why not martial arts training? How to put someone down with minimal risk to either?


DPS advised to drop boxing drills
Report cites head injuries; agency unsure on changes for trainees
12:00 AM CST on Saturday, March 4, 2006
By PETE SLOVER / The Dallas Morning News

AUSTIN ? A panel of consultants Friday recommended that the Texas Department of Public Safety eliminate its trainee boxing drills, saying they caused too many head injuries and didn't simulate real-life dangers for troopers.
 
ERICH SCHLEGEL/DMN
Christy Carty and her son, Bryce, attended a badge ceremony last summer for her husband, Jimmy Ray Carty Jr., who died in May 2005 of injuries suffered in a DPS trainee drill. "The Survival and Control Tactics program, in its current form, causes too many serious injuries, and does not involve realistic police tactics," said the consultant's report presented to the Texas Public Safety Commission, the agency that oversees the DPS.

"The rate of head injury and the rate of serious head injuries were significantly greater at TXDPS than at the other public and private training facilities that we surveyed."

The consultants recommended new training ? modeled on that used by federal, state and local agencies such as Dallas police ? in which an instructor in a padded suit faces off against a trainee, rather than having two trainees in boxing gear fight each other.

The commission did not vote on the matter. But the DPS director, Col. Thomas A. Davis Jr., said the consultant's recommended changes could begin being implemented Monday and could be in place before an incoming recruit class is scheduled to begin hand-to-hand training, in about 10-12 weeks.

However, an agency spokeswoman said later that it's too early to say whether DPS will adopt the consultants' central finding that the boxing should be stopped.

DPS changes uncertain

"We don't know what parts are going to be implemented or how we are going to do it yet," said the spokeswoman, Tela Mange.

The exercises were suspended after the May 2005 death of Jimmy Ray Carty Jr., a recruit and former sheriff's deputy, from injuries he suffered while fighting. Research by The Dallas Morning News found the drills were responsible for at least 121 concussions and other brain injuries since 1978.

Mr. Carty's widow said she had taken Col. Davis' statements to mean that the boxing drills were being scrapped and was initially pleased at the outcome. Upon learning of the spokeswoman's clarification, though, she expressed disappointment.

"I left that meeting with the impression that DPS was going to implement these new changes immediately," she said. "It's upsetting to me. I left calling everybody, telling them that the boxing drills were stopped."

She also expressed chagrin that she had learned from the news media ? not the agency ? that the matter was on the Public Safety Commission's agenda.

The DPS director said any changes will take into consideration the need for officer safety, both during the drills and on patrol later in troopers' careers. Defenders of the drills said that they were valuable in preparing troopers for fighting.

The consultants, Dr. Fabrice Czarnecki and Dr. Richard Miller of the Miami-based Gables Group, acknowledged the reasons DPS gave for having the drills: "to allow recruits to experience being hit and to have recruits learn to fight beyond their point of exhaustion. ... Troopers may patrol a rural county in a one-officer car, with the nearest backup possibly two hours away."

But they weren't convinced by the reasons given.

"These benefits are outweighed by the risks of head trauma, concussion, loss of job and death. Other training methods which are more realistic, more effective, and safer should be used instead," they wrote, noting a nationwide trend toward eliminating boxing drills.

Other suggestions

Among the consultants' other recommendations:

? That recruits no long participate in grappling drills in which trainees wrestle head to head over a weapon. Also, they suggested that the new training, unlike the previous pre-dawn fight sessions, be scheduled to allow trainees normal sleep hours.

? Increased training for instructors and more instructors monitoring defensive tactics drills. They noted one safety officer was often monitoring two rings of fighters at once and that videotapes showed recruits rarely followed the rules of not hitting unprotected areas, especially the head.

? Increased use of role-playing under various scenarios troopers are likely to encounter in real life, including wearing uniforms rather than gym gear, facing multiple assailants, using batons, simulating traffic stops and resolving situations without physical confrontations or force. They said that punching is a risky and ineffective tactic compared with open-hand blows and should not be a part of training.

The consultants, who were paid up to $85,000, found that increasing protective gear without changing the nature of the exercises probably would not reduce the instance of head injuries.

The goals of the training could be more effectively accomplished through safer methods, they said.

Staff doctor urged

The consultants praised current pre-training medical screening of recruits but included some recommendations to tweak that screening.

They suggested hiring a new DPS staff physician to, among other things, monitor employees' fitness to return to duty after training injuries.

And DPS should implement a "self-defense conditioning" program to supplement current physical training, focusing on strengths that are especially needed in physical confrontations.

E-mail pslover@dallasnews.com
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