Emotional Use of Force
By Coach Tony Blauer
“Use of force should never look emotional.
It should simply be "Use of Force.”
I have studied violence, fear, and aggression for 40+ years.
During that period, I have studied actual footage and used that footage to design and conduct thousands of very realistic scenarios. Here are some important observations:
During the training, when role players are attacked logically and sequentially, the defender (student) was generally able to access their trained complex motor skills. This is because of ‘pattern recognition’. The brain could read the event and select the correct strategy to solve the problem. When I compared footage of training vs footage of real incidents, the results were very different.
In real violent encounters, when attacks were sudden & unorthodox, when there was no consent, the results were completely different. Trained skills were often lost or forgotten.Why couldn’t basic armbars be applied? Weapon transitions failed, coordination and access to fine motor skills dissipated as the aggression increased, and so on.
There is an explanation, but first…
To fully grasp the problem and solution, I'm going to illuminate the connection between physiology and psychology during sudden violent encounters - because in this nano moment of sudden violence inside the reactionary gap a misunderstood but fascinating and predictable human reaction results when most people are struck in the head.
At that moment, if the violent stimulus is a true surprise, the reactive brain can hijack executive function (access to the cognitive brain controlling complex motor skills). Neuroscience is now running the show.
This knowledge can make the officer safer inside the reactionary gap. Further, this knowledge can help us protect officers more effectively in court by educating those who evaluate and judge ‘use of force’ reactions.
Of course, of tantamount importance, it can also help organizations and professional trainers improve their defensive tactics programs and potential prompt ‘emotional use of force.’
What happens when a stimulus is introduced too quickly?
“Danger” is detected via the limbic system and triggers this survival response. At this level it bypasses cognition.
The Prefrontal Cortex, where executive-function takes place, is hijacked by the reptilian brain.
A survival reaction occurs, called the ‘startle-flinch’. If the officer is holding onto something they contract around it, unable to release for a moment (those explains officers getting dragged by cars, unable to let go a flashlight or ticket when a physical assault has started, and so on.
The amygdala and limbic system are on high alert.
For a short time, the defender is in survival mode.
The reptilian brain wants you to survive - its initial response is to protect the head and move you away from danger.
If the training experience and tactical movements taught aren't congruent with how humans actually think and move, during sudden violence, the reactive brain can override the system resulting in a freeze response where the very complex motor skills you practiced are hijacked by fear and a physiological override.
Let’s shift from the defensive tactics arena for a moment. Sometimes it's easier to relate to new ideas when we look at a completely different picture. It helps us override unconscious bias which we all suffer from to a degree.
Here's a visceral (emotional) example, please visualize this truthfully:
You walk into your shed or basement to reach for some tool and your hand and forearm travel through a spider web. Without seeing it, your finely honed instincts know exactly what it is. You react immediately. You recoil, without thinking, wipe your arm. Your physiology changes a little. You scan quickly for the culprit, but your reaction is somewhat measured.
All good. Now, let's change the scenario just a little, this time you walk face-first into a spider web. It's in your face and hair.
What did you visualize this time?
Think. I'm sure this has happened to you at least once in your life. What did you do? I don't know you and wasn't there, but let me guess: you snapped your head back and recoiled violently. Your hands came up lightning-fast and groped at your face. You twisted your head, closed your eyes, your hands still groping at your face wiping away this invisible silk.
At that moment you weren't thinking, you were reacting to a potential sudden threat.
What's fascinating is when you consider the extreme difference in reaction from spider web on arm vs face.
Then consider how different you would react if you saw the web just before you stepped into it. Again there would be a sudden fear spike and small flinch, but the crazy “Spider Web Kung Fu” dance wouldn't have happened.
This is important because I need you to understand that something happens to most humans when they anticipate a threat to the head - their command center.
Here is another important observation:
All this happened in a nanosecond, all because your survival system perceived immediate danger.
And in this small example lies a critical missing piece of the defensive tactics equation.
Our reaction is dramatically more emotional when the danger is to our face & head.
We may flinch when we see something near our foot, on our leg or arm, but when it's to our face/head our reaction is dramatic and the reaction seems to bypass cognition. We don't think about it and choose to flinch, we just do.
When the head is at risk, our body and mind will do whatever it needs to ensure safety and survival.
Now, let's go back to the subject of defensive tactics. Please do your best to retain the image of the spider web reaction and weigh and consider what I've shared about the reactive response.
Visualize this scenario and answer this question truthfully:
A stranger walks up to you and stops just within arm’s reach. They look a little odd. You look at them and ask if you can help.
Without any provocation, they say they want to fight you. Then they just stand there, they don't move.
What happened next in your mind?
Don't romanticize this, don't turn it into a Kung Fu movie. What would you really do at that moment?
(Hold that thought.)
As you're trying to figure this out, they move closer and kick you in the shin and say, “c’mon let’s fight”.
It's not a fancy or technical martial art kick, it's just a shitty kick, the kind a kid throwing a tantrum might throw.
Now, what would you do?
Again, don't be a character in a John Wick movie. You’re probably processing this, wondering what the heck is going on and how should you handle this in this day & age of optics on law enforcement and while you're thinking about that, SMACK! you're sucker-punched!
Now, what happens? Picture it.
Let me help as I've studied this for over 3 decades. First, in a nanosecond, you flinch. You don't think to flinch, it just happens. No one thinks, “I should flinch now.” Your hands come up blazingly fast. Your head turns away, your eyes close. This is a non-conscious coordinated body-mind movement managed by your survival system. As you begin to cognitively catch -up to what's happening you're either experiencing the emotion of fear or anger. Welcome to an ‘emotional use of force’ moment.
When We Get Hit in the Head, We See Red.
Something happens to humans, especially males when attacked to the head.
While some may write this off as ‘ego', as I’ve explained earlier, there's a lot of neuroscience behind our need to protect the head. It's our command center.
But there is also something incredibly emotional about being struck or even touched in the face and it can get to the best of us.
(IMO, This is an area of research and dissection that is needed to help make officers safer on the street and in court.)
When the head is at risk, our body and mind will do whatever it needs to ensure safety and survival - we have been ambushed and have to make a decision under pressure. Time is compressed. We are thrust into an event where the brain has determined we are in a life or death situation. From a neuroscience perspective, a decision made by the amygdala cannot be manipulated until we weather the ambush.
Now hold that thought while I share another example outside defensive tactics
Consider this boxing scenario.
A pro boxer knows he can take a knee if he's hurt. This is his timeout, mulligan, a safety net. This would give him an eight-count to recover.
Every boxer knows about this rule, yet how many times in your life have you seen a self-initiated 8-count?
I've been a huge boxing fan since the 70s and I can only remember three times that I've seen a boxer take a knee strategically.
Now stay with me…
When a pro fighter is rocked by a shot, what do they most often do? They know they can call a timeout. But what do they do when they're hurt, scared, and in danger?
If you're not sure, let me help. They grope at the threat and try to clinch like a drowning victim trying to grab hold of the lifeguard. Think about how insane that is
The injured fighter will move towards the danger and try to hold onto the very person who is trying to rip uppercuts and body shots into them!
Outrageous choices for the pro fighter who knows the rules of engagement.
If a pro fighter can’t remember the simple option of “taking a knee”, how can we expect an amateur fighter like a police officer to think with total clarity during a violent attack, especially when they've been struck in the head.
(i.e. No offense intended, but every police officer is an amateur fighter compared to a pro boxer).
The point being we expect every police officer to remain lucid and calmly transition between use of force options like a martial arts master.
Add this to the mix in contrast to the pro fighter.
A police officer is fighting in the street, on concrete, not a padded floor.
There is no referee to break up the fight.
There is no mouthguard or groin protector.
The police officer doesn't know what time the fight starts, who the opponent will be, or the weight class!
And, unlike in the ring where there’s only one opponent, in the street, there are multiple potential threats and always weapons present.
Psychological fear, on top of the head trauma, completely changes this human’s capacity.
Seriously, think about this scenario. Because it’s real.
This expectation puts an insane amount of pressure on the officer at an unconscious level as they know they are being judged to a standard that can't even be replicated in a training scenario, let alone a truly violent encounter.
Think back to the spider web.
Think back to imagining yourself getting slapped across the face.
Shots to the head create reactive responses, they cloud judgment, physiology, and state change (SNS and vertical breathing) and this all changes how the brain functions.
“When there is trauma to the head, the force throws the brain against the interior of your skull. This alters the chemical and electrical balance to cell communication and function, so it’s no surprise that concussions produce physical, emotional, and/or behavioral responses.” - From BrainCheck website
Tracking?
Fighting in this state can lead to poor decision making that can result in the application of excessive or ineffective force.
Will reading and sharing this article make anyone safer?
In my opinion, it will. It can inspire a necessary change in police training to review then include brain-based training. This will greatly improve training.
The purpose of this article was to start a conversation and inspire two shifts in training:
More research into brain-based training
More research into realistic and relevant training that will help prepare police to better handle violent individuals in a safer manner. This can reduce the risk to the officer, the suspect, and the community.
We can't stop all violence. It's too unpredictable. But there are many scenarios that could be stopped or minimized because they are very predictable, especially since head strikes (sucker punches) are the most common empty hand attacks against police officers.
There is a link, a direct correlation between violent head trauma and an emotional vs technical response by the officer. This strongly suggests there is a direct link to head trauma and excessive force.
Head strikes are the worst, they cause the most damage, they are the most psychologically devastating (before, during, and after a confrontation).
Head trauma, when received by some officers, makes it less likely they will fight back because it creates emotional, psychological, and physical inertia. In others, it can trigger a spike to the sympathetic nervous system response where they go into fight mode and possibly over-reaction. It's all connected. Including the legal, the medical, and the emotional (careers, politics, and PTSD).
The principle and concepts I'm sharing have been evaluated by medical and scientific SMEs. The core DNA of this protective measure is as old humankind. But for this article, physiology is not as important as psychology.
We need to train our officers to understand violence and how to manage their fear. This will increase their confidence and competence and help reduce emotional responses.
TIMELINE TO VIOLENCE
While no one can predict the exact cost associated with the economics of violence for a single incident, it's still easy to extrapolate that sudden violence, initiated by the perpetrator, often triggers a cascade of events that costs lives, careers, hearts, minds, and serious money. [Think 'Ferguson'. Started with head strikes to the officer, cost reportedly 26M.]
In a perfect world, ‘Use of Force’ should never be emotional, it should just be ‘Use of Force'. Matter of fact. Not 'emotional'. And in most incidences, that’s all it is for the well-trained professional. But we need to integrate behavioral truths into training as well as how we review and evaluate post-incidents.
Officers, Trainers, Administrators, Politicians, the Media, all need to understand the neuroscience of violence.
Administrators, trainers, legal teams, journalists, basically anyone who ‘judges’ an encounter without ever having really experienced fear and physical danger, needs to be exposed to this research so they can understand that when an officer is violently attacked, they are not the same person who graduated from the academy doing choreographed drills with a cooperative role-player.
Their reptilian brain has hijacked their pre-frontal cortex. Executive function is not readily accessible. Asking them to make calm, calculated decisions during extreme danger isn't even an option for a few seconds. They are now a real human being, with real fears, and a 100,000-year-old DNA survival system trying to override the very complex motor skill training that they were taught!
There are no guarantees.
Clint Eastwood once said that if you want a guarantee, buy a toaster. There are no guarantees and while it would be nice to proclaim that all use of force will always be devoid of emotion, that’s just not realistic. Not only is it not realistic, but it's also erroneous. The human survival spirit is fueled by fear and emotions are part of that. There will always be incidents where our emotions are the missing element needed to help us survive the danger.
Impact to the head generates an immediate physiological fear response. Fear makes us emotional if we have not studied it. Emotional use of force will always be less effective. And ineffective force will always look like excessive force.
Most training takes place in the safety of a classroom - the real test takes place in the street. And if you're out in the street, my hope is that this article inspires you to learn more practical ways to protect your head. And I hope your colleagues and administration decide to research the physiological effects of sudden violence and include those findings in their education and training policy, as I believe that will help acquit officers who are wrongly judged when they are reactive during a violent encounter.
The integration of neuroscience and physiology will make defensive tactics systems more court defensible. When trainers understand how the brain works, they can begin integrating brain-based scenario training. In conjunction with a deeper understanding of the startle-flinch response and how to convert that into a protective counter, officers will have safer ways to protect their heads inside the reactionary gap.
The inclusion of an effective mindset and fear management strategies will make the officers more resilient! A modern brain-based approach to scenario training will help stress inoculate officers to the physiological and psychological effects sudden danger can illicit. This would be a huge start in reducing personal and professional liability and this can help regulate ‘emotional use of force’.
Stay safe,
Coach Tony Blauer
Blauer Training Systems
Additional recommended reading: VIOLENCE DOESN'T CARE WHAT MARTIAL ART WE STUDY
TONY BLAUER BIO
Coach Tony Blauer has been in the defensive tactics, and combatives industry for over four decades.
He founded Blauer Tactical Systems (BTS) in 1985 and it has grown into one of the world's leading consulting companies specializing in the research and development of performance psychology, personal safety, and close quarter tactics & scenario-based training for law enforcement, military, and professional self-defense instructors. His programs have influenced over three decades of trainers and coaches as well as most contemporary reality-based martial artists
His research on the neuroscience of fear and the startle-flinch lead to the development of the SPEAR System® a modern personal defense system based on physiology, physics, and psychology. It has been used by defensive tactics and combative trainers all over the world for over 30 years.
He developed the world's first impact-reduction scenario-based training equipment, called High Gear which revolutionized force-on-force training for police, SWAT, and military organizations.
He travels extensively working with individuals, corporations, and government organizations around the world providing solutions for training, performance assessment, and credentialing. His company is dedicated to enhancing the mental and physical safety of everyone they help train.