The policy specifically bars intentional strikes to the head or face in most circumstances.
“Never (as a police officer) would you stand toe-to-toe and just trade punches with somebody,” said Chris Burbank, the vice president of law enforcement strategy at the Center for Policing Equity and the former chief of the Salt Lake City Police Department. “So, I don’t see the benefit of this other than for an archaic tradition.”
Just two county police academies Cape May and Mercer still include boxing in their training programs, and Mercer hasn’t featured it during the coronavirus pandemic, Aseltine said.
But the drill also has many defenders in the police community who argue that police officers will inevitably encounter uncooperative and violent offenders and need to be taught how to defend themselves in a physical confrontation.