Defensive Tactics and Physical Skills
What this domain tests
Defensive Tactics and Physical Skills tests whether you can select a lawful, proportional control technique and explain why it fit the threat.
Core rules
- Objective reasonableness. Force is judged from the perspective of a reasonable officer on scene, not with hindsight. Factors include immediate threat, severity of the crime, and active versus passive resistance.
- De-escalation first. Time, distance, cover, and communication reduce the need for force when feasible.
- Control principles. Balance, base, and leverage; control the head and hips; handcuff properly and double-lock.
- Positional asphyxia. After prone control, recover the subject to a seated or standing position as soon as safe. Do not leave weight on the back or neck.
- Medical awareness. Agitation, profuse sweating, and incoherent speech may signal a medical emergency, not just resistance.
Worked example
A subject pulls his arm away and clenches his fists but does not swing. The officer steps back, gives clear commands, and when the subject advances, uses a controlled takedown to prone, handcuffs him, then immediately sits him up. Reasoning: clenched fists and advancing can elevate the threat, but the response must match it. A takedown is defensible if the subject is actively resistant and the officer can articulate the threat; sitting him up addresses positional asphyxia. If the subject had only been verbally noncompliant, a takedown would be harder to justify.
Traps
- Using pain compliance on a passive subject.
- Leaving a handcuffed subject prone after the struggle ends.
- Writing "he resisted" without describing the action.
- Ignoring signs of excited delirium or drug toxicity.