Police Offensive/Defensive Knife Tactics

By Jim Weiss and Mickey Davis

Only a few law enforcement academies teach knife tactics to cadets. In Ohio, one of the first is the Central Ohio Technical College (C.O.T.C.). The college’s course is titled Knife: Offensive/Defensive Application (K.O.D.A.), and is primarily based on knife training applications for police officers who find themselves in life-threatening encounters.

Historically, police training involves tactics that can be used by officers when they are exposed to felons with an edged weapon, but generally don’t involve how to offensively/defensively use a knife themselves. (Unfortunately, some law enforcement agencies are against allowing their officers to carry knives.)

America has a weapons culture in which someone who doesn’t want to be caught carrying a gun may carry an easily-obtainable knife. These weapons are quiet and convenient to carry, and are unfortunately found even within the walls of correctional institutions. In addition, now some blades are non-metal plastic, and can go through an x-ray without detection.

The last statistics provided to us involving knife attacks on US soldiers go back to 2011. At this time the US Army Combatives School studied the firsthand experiences of 900 documented, close-quarter combat experiences involving knives, firearms, and hand-to-hand combat, including incidents where soldiers were stabbed with their own knives. Concerns at the time involved close-quarter residential dwellings where knife and gun gr...