In our quest for accurately representing violent encounters on the stage or screen, it is sometimes important to look at statistics. In the case of suspects resisting arrest, we can study the techniques that police use, and imagine scenarios, but we probably won’t know the most frequent patterns without accurate reporting and study.

The Study

Let’s look at the 1997 ASLET “Use of Force Training Seminar: Future of Non-Lethal Force Training–Reality Based and Integrating Techniques for Non-Lethal Force Training”, which you can find at the Journal of Non-lethal Combatives, Jan 2007

The report concluded: “Nearly two thirds of the 1988 altercations (62%) ended with the officer and subject on the ground with the officer applying a joint lock and handcuffing the subject.” Given this, it is better put that the LAPD data says when officers physically fought with suspects (versus simply encountering minor resistance or non-compliance which required a minor use of force, but did not escalate into an altercation), 95% of the time those fights took one of five patterns, and 62% of those five types of altercations ended up with the officer and subject on the ground with the officer locking and handcuffing the suspect.

Five scenario patterns accounted for 95% of the altercations: “Within each of these five patterns, a description of the most frequent first, second, and final combative action was generated by the computer… Four combative actions by suspects accounted for almost two thirds (65.8%) of injuries; the officer was kicked 23.4 percent, punched 16 percent, thrown/tripped 15 percent, or was bitten 11.4 percent.” The thrown/tripped statistic includes injuries sustained from wrestling on the ground.

5 Scenarios, 95% of The Time

As for the five patterns, they were:

  1. Subject pulls away from an officer’s attempt to control the subject’s arm. “33.7% Officer grabbed the subject by the arm and the subject pulled his arm away; the most frequent second act was the officer applying a joint lock (32%) and the most frequent final subduing act was the officer taking the subject down to the ground (46%)”
  2. Subject attempts to punch or kick the officer. “25.4% Subject ran at the officer and swung punches and kicks; the most frequent second act was the officer evading the subject and striking him with the baton (26%; a close second was taking the subject to the ground 22%) and the most frequent final subduing act was taking the subject to the ground (35%).”
  3. Subject refuses to assume a searching position. “19.3% Subject refused to assume a searching position as verbally ordered by the officer; the most frequent second act was the officer applying a joint lock (35.5%) and the most frequent final subduing act was taking the subject to the ground (36.5%).”
  4. Subject flees and officer pursues. “10.5% Subject ran from the officer, officer chased the subject; the most frequent second act was the officer taking the subject to the ground (40%) and the most frequent final subduing act was also taking the subject to the ground (39.5%).”
  5. Subject takes a combative posture, but does not attempt to strike the officer. “6.8% Subject assumed a fighting, martial arts, or boxing stance but did not attack the officer; the most frequent second act was the officer striking the subject with the baton (38%) and this was also the most frequent final act (41%).”

I love that last one: subject takes a fighting stance, officer strikes him with a baton, game over.

Injuries

The study also included the percentages of injuries based on targeting of the attacks. For example: kicking resulted in injuries to the legs (36%), the head (27%), the rib cage (22.5%), and the groin (14%). Although several fractures occurred, the most common injury was a bruise to the legs, head, ribs, or groin. The most common injury suffered in ground fighting was a strained lower back.

How Often

Let’s take a step back and look at some of the basics. Television and movies have probably skewed our perspective on how many times this happens each day.

  • During 1988, there were 316,525 arrests made by LAPD. 2,031 (0.6%) altercations developed from these arrests. “Of the 5,617 reports examined, only 2,031 incidents contained a sufficient level of aggressive resistance by the suspect toward the officer to qualify as an altercation.”

    Thus, the study confirms what every police officer knows: most arrest situations involve little or no use of force, and minor resistance does not qualify as a “fight” (or in this case, altercation). Semi-compliant persons are often stopped by a mere order to comply or with a firm control of an arm or wrist for handcuffing.

  • During 1988, there were an average of 867 arrests and 5.6 altercations per day. Eight hundred fifty six officers reported injuries from such altercations. These 856 officers missed a total of 2,095 days from work due to injuries sustained in altercations.
  • In 1988 the average officer in uniform and assigned to the field was in less than 3 altercations.
  • Altercations were most likely to develop from the following field activities: disturbances of the peace (33.8%), traffic stops (18.5%), and observed narcotics activity (14.8%).
  • Over 90% of the subjects involved in altercations were male; only about 9.5% were female.

How To Depict An Arrest

If your goal is to depict an exciting arrest scene, and you can make up any story, you should start with one of the three activities that lead to altercations. Then, choose one of the five scenarios that you like.

If you have a scene that’s already written, and the director hires you to build an exciting fight, remind him of these realities, and discuss how realistic you want the scene to be.

And brush up on your judo and jiujutsu, because 62% of those altercations end with the officer handcuffing the suspect after going to the ground.