I’ve been involved with teaching DT since 1979. Sure has been an interesting, and strange, journey.
At the beginning, almost all of the DT instructors I encountered were big, strong men. Most of them, not all, but most, taught techniques that were easy for other big, strong men to do correctly and that might actually work. That wasn’t the case for us smaller guys, or older officers, or small, introverted females.
Fortunately for everyone, a lot of that has changed over the years.
Here’s an example of some of the things we had to go through in Massachusetts. The governing body for DT certification at the time was the Massachusetts Criminal Justice Training Council. We would get certified, then re-certified by them every couple years.
So, one time (early nineties) they did a nation wide search for someone who would be in the position to certify all other officers. I put in for it, but was told “Oh, we’re doing a nationwide search. We’re going to get the best!” And I thought “sure you will, how silly of me.”
So they hire a guy out of Houston PD, Howard L.
I’m working at the Boston PD Academy at the time, part time, as well as my Law Enforcement job full time. Myself and two other really good DT instructors are with me at the Academy. We were all approaching the time for re-certification. So they send Howard L to the Academy. He tells us, “I’ve read your files, know you’re all experienced, so I want you to go through your entire DT course, I’ll observe and ask questions when I have them.”
You could already smell the rat.
So we spent three days going through everything, having a ball, while Howard watched, and asked silly questions every now and then. He then re-certified us.
A week later we learned that Howard L had been fired from the Houston Police Department for various misdeeds, all of them pretty bad. And completely fabricated his resume. He had never taught DT in his life. The damn fool from Mass Criminal Justice never bothered to check on Howard, no vetting, not even a phone call.
So, I’m at work, sitting across from the head of our Legal Department, and I call the head of Mass Criminal Justice, the guy who did the “nationwide search.” I tell him, “we have a big problem” and explain to him that we are not certified because the person who certified us was a phony. He tells us, “Oh, it’s okay, I okayed the certification.”
I said, “Sir, you’re a moron.” Then the head of legal took the phone and told him the same thing.
We then were sent to FLETC, got certified, and everything was okay.
Years later I told my bosses I wanted to completely redesign our entire DT course. They were not happy. I told them, “Just come to my dojo, any night between Monday and Friday, bring your workout clothes and I’ll show you why.”
They actually came, the Section Head, a captain, two Lts and a sergeant. I was pleasantly surprised. They worked out with the guest instructor that week. Rickson Gracie. My bosses left scratching their heads, asking me “How the hell does he do all that stuff? And, yes, redesign anything you want, just get me an autographed T-shirt, please.”
It was kind of funny. But that's how our DT program got straightened out.
