Surrey Police Service (SPS) is the first Lower Mainland police agency to host a Gracie Survival Tactics (GST) instructor course for neighbouring law enforcement and first responder agencies. The course brought together over 35 police officers and individuals from 10 different agencies for co-operative training that focused on Brazilian jiu-jitsu techniques and de-escalation exercises.

Gracie Survival Tactics are leveraged based techniques, that when used properly, can help control a subject without having to resort to strikes, minimizing injuries to subjects and officers during a violent encounter. GST is a core component of de-escalation training at SPS. Held from February 27 to March 3, successful completion of the course provides other agencies in the region the opportunity to teach GST at their home agency. 

Police officers, peace officers and other first responders participated in the training at one of SPS’s training facilities, with SPS Constable Christiaan Allaart assisting a lead instructor from Gracie University. Constable Allaart provides GST training for all officers who join SPS, as well as weekly GST practice sessions for officers to continue to hone their skills. 

“By providing modern de-escalation training to agencies across the Lower Mainland, we are supporting first responders in learning new techniques that help protect members of the public and first responders,” said SPS Chief Constable Norm Lipinski. “Officers and first responders from neighbouring agencies often find themselves responding to incidents together, so having a shared understanding of de-escalation techniques is critical.”  

SPS looks forward to hosting and participating in more multi-jurisdictional training opportunities in the future in continuing collaboration with other Lower Mainland agencies.