Controlling Violent Combatants – L.O.C.K.U.P. ® Police Combat
3 Day Certification
The L.O.C.K.U.P.® System (Law Officers Combat Kinetics Unarmed Panoply – The complete array of skills required for the modern-day Guardian) was developed in 2000 for 
law enforcement, security, and correctional personnel. With over 60 years of combined law enforcement and martial arts expertise, L.O.C.K.U.P.® delivers a comprehensive approach to arrest and control maneuvers for managing all levels of physical resistance and aggression.
This program places a primary focus on unarmed engagements and includes force option transitional skills combining dynamic arrest and control tactics with foundational combat and restraint techniques. It is field-tested, court-tested, legally defendable, and easily retainable, providing quantifiable evidence of its effectiveness.
Course Overview:
Controlling Violent Combatants – L.O.C.K.U.P.® Police Combat
This intensive 3-day hands-on training course is designed to enhance officers’ ability to manage violent encounters beyond basic training. Through lectures, demonstrations, role-play, and practical scenario-based applications, participants will develop effective arrest and control tactics. The training emphasizes strategic, direct, and proportionate responses to resistance and aggression across diverse operational environments.
________________________________________
INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES
Section I: De-escalation and Force Mitigation
• Identify and discuss classroom safety protocols.
• Explain the history and development of the L.O.C.K.U.P.® Arrest and Control System and L.E.A.D.S.® Law Enforcement Active De-escalation Strategies.
• Define de-escalation as a reduction in force severity in response to a decrease in resistance.
• Examine the five areas of the brain involved in communication, learning, and survival.
• Analyze the impact of language on neurological responses and emotional regulation.
• Discuss the psychophysiological aspects of human performance in conflict resolution.
• Identify strategies to address anger-driven brain patterns.
• Examine how the brain processes neurological imprints that affect memory and behavior.
• Explain how oxygenated blood flow to the prefrontal cortex affects decision-making under stress.
• Assess psychophysiological changes during aggression and their impact on decision-making.
• Develop verbal conflict resolution techniques, including “Creating an Agreement of Communications.”
• Learn breathing techniques to restore oxygenated blood flow to the prefrontal cortex for improved reasoning.
• Explore force mitigation strategies, including barriers, containment, tactical repositioning, and verbal de-escalation.
• Discuss the value of tracking and trending use-of-force deployments, emphasizing the principle: “You can’t manage what you don’t measure.”
________________________________________
Section II: Training, Psychomotor Skill Development, and Mental Representation
• Develop pre-programmed responses through focused, repetitive training.
• Understand how neural pathways form through repetition, reinforcing skill acquisition.
• Learn methods to create mental representations that enhance long-term memory and performance.
________________________________________
Section III: Legal Applications and Standards
• Establish lawful control as the ultimate objective in all use-of-force situations.
• Explain how the Fourth Amendment protects against unreasonable search and seizure.
• Analyze Graham v. Connor (1989) and its implications for non-deadly force applications.
• Analyze Tennessee v. Garner (1984) and its impact on deadly force guidelines.
• Apply the Objectively Reasonable Standard in force-related decisions.
• Define the three-step process for use-of-force decision-making: Perception, Reasonable Response, and Reassessment.
• Explain the Three-Prong Test: Ability, Opportunity, and Intent.
• Discuss Adaptive Thinking, as defined by Anders Ericsson, in responding to evolving threats.
• Define Decisive Force as a reasonable, justifiable means of control.
• Evaluate Environmental Awareness and Quantum of Force before deploying force.
• Understand Failure to Intervene and the duty to act when witnessing excessive force.
• Learn methods to control the rate of decent during takedowns to minimize injury risk.
• Discuss Selective Attention and Inattentional Blindness and their impact on law enforcement interactions.
• Define Hypervigilance and its role in threat detection and officer well-being.
• Understand the risks associated with head strikes and their classification as potential deadly force.
• Develop report writing skills emphasizing facts over conclusions in force documentation.
• Examine anatomical targets and categorize force applications as deadly, moderate, or non-deadly based on impact zones.
________________________________________
Section IV: Psychomotor Skills Development and Drills
• Demonstrate proficiency in six L.O.C.K.U.P.® stances/platforms.
• Apply the four zones of body mechanics for controlled engagements.
• Execute open-hand and closed-fist strikes effectively and safely.
• Understand the medical implications of striking and joint manipulations.
• Master escort maneuvers and subject control techniques.
• The anatomy of a police takedowns – Decentralizes, Displaces the balance, and /or Directs the subject to the ground for the purposes (s) of capture, and/or facilitating restraint of the subject.
• .Discuss Quantum of Force and foreseeable outcome
• Define the science and facts pertaining to the safe methods of prone restraints. Dispel myths.
• L.O.C.K.U.P. ® Prone restraint to handcuffing
________________________________________
Section V: Apply and instruct the following techniques against resisting subjects:
• Rear Sentry Takedown
• Single Arm Wrap Takedown (from an escort position).
• Double Arm Wrap Takedown (for multiple-officer control).
• One Leg Takedown
• Demonstrate proficiency and the ability to instruct Coordinate Team Control tactics
Two Officers Control
Three Officer Control
Four Officer Control
• Defense against a two-hand choke (Guard Position).
• Escape from the Guard Position.
• Defense against a two-hand choke (Mount Position Attack).
• Defense against a two-hand punch (Mount Position Attack).
• Maintaining control from the Mount Position.
________________________________________
Section VI: Retention and Transitional Drills
• Demonstrate proficiency and the ability to instruct practical arrest and control drills.
• Weapon transitional drills
The FBI National Academy Associates
2022 Science and Innovation Award
The selection committee unanimously selected L.O.C.K.U.P. Arrest and Control Training and L.E.A.D.S. Law Enforcement Active Diffusion Strategies Training Systems over all other nominees as the recipient of the 2022 Science and Innovation Award.
The L.O.C.K.UP. training differentiated itself from other Defensive tactics programs being instructed throughout the country. L.O.C.K.U.P. is not a technique-based training system but the emphasis is on the actual collection of data on the use of force incidents, and detailed reporting to determine the effectiveness and needs assessments of the officers on the street.
The L.E.A.D.S. De-escalation is fully integrated and interleaved with the L.O.C.K.U.P. Arrest and Control System. The training is designed to address circumstantial, contextual, or situational engagements.
FBI National Academy Associates – Charitable Foundation Award