Police Officers With Supplemental Martial Arts Training Perform Better: A Quasi-Experimental Study With Brazilian Cadets

Purpose. This study explores the impact of Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) and Muay-Thai (Thai) training on police use-of-force (PUF) performance in a simulated call using a sample of Latin American police. Methods. Thirty-four police cadets from a southern Brazilian state were split into three groups based on martial arts experience: BJJ, Thai, and control (no experience). Their performance was evaluated in a simulated use-of-force scenario in terms of tactics, decision-making, de-escalation, team safety, and movement execution accuracy. Findings. There were large differences in favor of the trained groups for movement execution, effectiveness, final grade, and collective scores, but no significant differences between BJJ and Thai groups. Practical implications. Police departments should provide (or, at least, incentivize) supplemental BJJ or Thai training for their officers to increase or maintain PUF performance. The results also suggest that officers can achieve high-performance levels in PUF with proper reality-based departmental use-of-force training alone. Originality. This study examined the relationship between supplemental martial arts training and officers' performance in a highly ethnically diverse and mixed Latin American law enforcement population, addressing several key limitations in the existing literature. Specifically, it evaluated participants' performance in a simulated high-stress police scenario, enabling an assessment of both decision-making and tactical execution. Furthermore, the study compared officers who received supplemental training in sparring and reality-based modalities with those who relied exclusively on departmental arrest and control training, incorporating a novel, highly reality-based approach.