LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A Louisville Metro Council member believes Jiu-Jitsu training will reduce police officer and suspect injury.
It’s one of the most popular martial arts today “Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu,” and Metro Council member Jeff Hudson has been a student of the sport for six years at Gracie Jiu-Jitsu on Blankenbaker Parkway. Hudson is a “blue belt.”
Hudson believes Jiu-Jitsu should be part of essential officer training at the Louisville Metro Police Department.
“A martial art that uses leverage and pressure rather than strikes and that’s what I think is applicable to the LMPD training is you’re not ‘beating’ someone into submission, you’re controlling them,” Hudson told Spectrum News 1.
Hudson says incorporating the martial art into police training will reduce injuries to both officers and suspects. Hudson’s chief instructor at Gracie Jiu-Jitsu agrees.
“And I can control that opponent on the ground, all while not hurting him. So he’s basically getting contained, but he’s not endangered,” Smith says while demonstrating.
Smith says in his nearly 30 years of experience he has trained many first responders, including firefighters and police officers.
“Once you find yourself trusting the technique and what you know works your level of confidence goes through the roof and what that enables the officer to do he doesn’t get so freaked out when he looks up and sees someone and says, ‘OK I’ve got to take this guy down or I have to control this person,’ he has technique and the ability to do that without harming the person or harming himself,” Smith said.
Hudson believes the Louisville and its police department should not only budget for Jiu-Jitsu training but also incentivize the advance training. Hudson estimates the program would cost Louisville $200,000 a year, out of a $42 million training budget, Hudson adds.
“So it’s a very small portion of that budget but if I’m able, as an LMPD officer, to deescalate a situation that without Jiu-Jitsu would have escalated into something much worse that might generate a lawsuit against the city..and that’s averted that more than pays for this entire program.”
Hudson says a common question is whether learning “choke holds” is a part of this training he’s proposing.
“There is a specific curriculum that’s been proposed here for law enforcement and it specifically prohibits chokes. It’s all about leverage and pressure,” Hudson explains.
Louisville and the police union are negotiating its next budget and Hudson is confident Jiu-Jitsu will be a part of it when the numbers are released in the coming weeks.