Defensive tactics training: How to get a suspect from his back to his stomach

Having been an active street cop for the entire 33 years of my police career, as well as an active police trainer for 43 years, in this series I share some of the defensive tactics techniques that helped me prevail on the street. The series presents a variety of defensive tactics in a format that allows you to follow the instructions and practice the technique. Remember practice makes prepared.

When officers meet an assaultive suspect, or even a suspect, who is stubbornly physically resistive, the dynamics of the struggle often lead to a moment when the suspect is on his back. Since handcuffing the suspect is often the goal of the controlling officer, the suspect landing on his back puts most officers in an awkward position for controlling that suspect. To make things even worse, when you are dealing with a trained suspect, his landing on his back does not put him out of the fight.

There is one technique I used many times on the street to roll a suspect from his back to his stomach. For lack of a better name, I shall call it the ”on your stomach please” technique.

Step one: Secure the arm

We will begin with the suspect on his back. It may be the result of a takedown, throw, decentralization, or a flying tackle. If you can give the suspect orders of, “On your stomach, arms out, palms up and don’t move!” and that works, great. Do that.

However, when the situation is dynamic and the suspect lands on the ground and he is on his back still resisting, the first thing I did was secure the arm by locking in with both my hands on the wrist, fingers on the inside of the wrist, thumbs on the back of the hand bending it toward the suspect.

I would maintain this grip as I stepped away and pulled, extending the arm (for demonstration we will control his left arm, but it can be done to either side.)

As I pull the suspect, he might even slide a few inches across the surface he is on. Ultimately, I would lock the arm straight out, continuing to put pressure with the thumbs on the back of his hand.

Step two: Secure the interior biceps-triceps and the wrist

The extending of the arm is just a moment in time for it is a setup. The suspect will have a tendency when you extend his arm to pull back on you and that will cause the arm to bend slightly.

Maintain your grip on the left wrist with your right hand and position his hand over his face. Position your left hand to take hold of the middle interior of the biceps-triceps area of the arm your thumb toward his triceps and your fingers toward his biceps.

Immediately begin walking around his head, while keeping his hand over the suspect’s face as a kind of pivot point. Walk around the suspect to the opposite side of his body as you verbalize, “On your stomach please.”

Step three: Secure the suspect with a rear compliance hold

While you walk around his head, telling him, “On your stomach please,” gives him direction even though, while maintaining the suspect’s hand above his face the walk around his head will cause the body to mechanically roll, almost flopping him over naturally as you arrive on the opposite side of his body.

You will be in a position to drop to your knees and place the suspect in a rear compliance hold. I have found that the “please” adds a nice touch for witnesses and has actually shown up in witness statements.

Barriers to achieving the natural rollover caused by this movement would be another officer being on top of the suspect, or a slick surface that causes the suspect to slide across the floor instead of flopping over.

Once you get the suspect on his stomach and placed in a rear compliance hold designed to gain compliance you can order the suspect to place his other hand behind his back to set him up for allowing you to handcuff him.

Conclusion

Anyone who follows police attempt-to-control snafus will notice that many police officers are at a loss to be able to quickly effectively control a resistive suspect who lands on their back. This is because they have either not been trained in any technique, or failed to train often enough in a technique so that it not only comes to mind, but they can perform correctly it under stress.

I share with you not the technique to accomplish the challenging task of rolling a resistive suspect from their back to their stomach, but a technique, which I discovered in real-world testing to work the best for me. Why was it the best?

1. It kept me from being injured.
2. It didn’t injure any of the many suspects I used it on.
3. It impressed bystanders and made me look like a pro.
4. The mechanical nature of it made it difficult to resist.
5. The effectiveness of this technique sent a message to the suspect, “It’s fruitless to resist.”

The last and most important reason I found this to be the best technique for me to use, which is why I am sharing it with you today, is that it helped get me home at the end of my shift!

Photos by Anya Marcou. Techniques demonstrated by Lt. Dan Marcou and Aidan Marcou.

NEXT: Access Dan Marcou’s entire defensive tactics training series here