Despite tremendous personal risk thousands of brave men and women join the ranks of law enforcement every year. While most of the general public claims to support men and women in uniform, for the most part it is little more than talk.

Police officers have to deal with everything from irate citizens to terrorists, and any number of strange and violent incidents which no other civilian occupation encounters. Millions are spent to train police officers, but they still don't receive the expert training that they need. Weapons and combat martial arts training have been cut to reduce budgets and to make room for "sensitivity" training. This lack of training has resulted in an increased level violence in our streets, and increased criticism of the police.

Police officers deserve our respect, and they also deserve better training. It isn't necessary to spend millions doing research, though; techniques have already been developed through the research and hard work of others. Over sixty years ago, William E. Fairbairn and his associate Eric Anthony Sykes patrolled the streets of Shanghai, the toughest city on the planet; in order to survive they developed their own close combat techniques for police officers. They modified these practical, easy-to-learn self defense techniques for the military, and in WWII used them to train Special Forces personnel and secret agents.

The slogan "Don't let your training end at the academy door" is good advice, but few seem to heed it. Police departments have high physical standards for a new recruit, but with the exception of a few elite units, there are almost no requirements for officers once they're on the job. In Japan police officers take part in combat sports like judo, karate, and kendo and benefit greatly from the combat conditioning they receive. Police officers need explosive power and functional strength to have an edge in street fighting. Combat self defense training has been watered down, leaving officers to rely on technology and brute force. The average street cop has more equipment at his or her disposal than ever before, but that isn't necessarily a good thing.

Marksmanship is another area of police training that is neglected. While many officers know how to shoot, they aren't prepared for an actual gun battle. In order to survive a firefight an officer needs to be trained for combat, not competition shooting. Close combat expert Colonel Rex Applegate analyzed data from police shootings in the decades following World War II and found that police officers missed their intended target eighty percent of the time. According to recent studies officers are doing even worse, with criminals shooting slightly better.

The methods that helped win WWII and keep the peace can help police officers again today. Those who put on the uniform and take the oath to become police officers are a special breed, but you don't have to be one of them to know that things need to change. While those in leadership positions often just throw money at the problem and hope it goes away, they should rather try something useful and encourage their local law enforcement to re-stress the fundamentals. As police officers better understand how to do their jobs, they will develop stronger and more positive relationships with the community. Police officers are warriors for justice, and like all warriors their training must be continuous.