The STAR Formation and the EDP (Emotionally Disturbed Person)

THE “STAR FORMATION.”  The Quick, Safe and Effective Countermeasure For the Violent Student or the EDP!

 

The next time you and your security team are confronted by an emotionally disturbed or otherwise out of control student, patient, inmate or subject you might want to consider trying my Star Formation Technique.  The STAR is ideal for efficiently and effectively using three or four staff members to control just about any disruptive or violent person in almost any type of environment.  As a matter of fact, the STAR is one of the few CQC (Close Quarter Combat) Countermeasures that works equally well in an environment as narrow as a prison cell and as wide open as a gymnasium.

 

The STAR (Safety Tactics Against Resistance) works off the conventional Triangulation Formation, where the Contact and Cover Officer operate from the strong-hand and off-hand Level 1 positions (they stand at the hypoteneuse of the triangle with the Bad Guy standing at the apex),  The contact officer uses Professional Communications (Pro Com) to attempt to chill the attacker, and, if de-escalation fails, the Cover Officer asks:  “Sir, is there anything I can say to get you to go along with the program today?  We really hope there is.”

 

If and when the violent subject refuses to go along with the program, the above Confirmation Question serves as the Star Signal – in other words, the signal for the security team to immediately form themselves into the Star:

 

1.      The Contact Officer slides one step to his/her left so that he/she is now in the subject’s Inside Position.

2.      Cover Officer 1 slides from the Off-Side 1 to Level 2 and grabs the subject’s hand and arm. 

3.      Cover Officer 2, who had moved onto the scene unobtrusively when the signal went out that a violent subject was being confronted, “appears” at the subject’s opposite hand and arm and also takes control.

4.      Cover Officer 3 appears “out of nowhere” at the subject’s Level 3, which is directly behind the subject.  He/she quickly displaces the subject’s balance by driving his/her shoulder into the Bad Guy’s hips and sliding both hands down the legs until he/she grabs the ankles an quickly lifts the Bad Guy off the ground in concert with Cover 1 and 2 who simultaneously pick the Bad Guy off the ground from their positions.

5.      The Contact Officer controls the subject’s torso by capturing him with both arms around the chest.  At all times, the Contact Officer talks to the subject and attempts to calm him/her.  Even if de-escalation is futile on the Bad Guy, by the way, it sure sounds good to witnesses, and, not unimportantly, sure looks and sounds great on camera.

6.      The Violent Subject is “gently” lifted off the ground and just as “gently” deposited face down on the ground, hopefully without injury.  Staff members should anticipate that the subject will react violently to being grounded, but the STAR has an answer for that, also.  The Contact Officer vises the subject’s head with both knees, trapping it.  The Contact Officer gives authoritative verbal directions and augments the direction with Pressure Points (Pain Compliance).  One or both of the Cover Officers on the arms can perform what I call the Invisible Handcuffs (Pain Compliance on the Index Knuckle while sliding toward the Bad Guy’s head).  If necessary, Cover 3 can perform a Modified Figure-Four Leg Lock.

7.      The Violent Student, Inmate, Parolee, Patient, or Subject ain’t going nowhere, Dog.  Emphasis on nowhere.

 

A caveat.  For security staff working for schools, human service agencies, or hospitals, the STAR is only to be used when all else fails.  When the Bad Guy must be stopped right then and there.  Otherwise not only the security staff will be endangered, but the population inside and outside of that agency!

 

Until the next post, stay safe.

Hammer

 

 

 

 

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