How Are Police Officers Prepared Against the Rising Knife Attacks?

Knives are deadly weapons, even for police officers with firearms and high-level training. Sadly, knife crime is on a steady rise, and law enforcement officers have to deal with more subjects wielding sharp-edged weapons. At times, an officer has to respond to distress calls concerning armed aggressors. Other times, it is the officers on the receiving end of surprise attacks during what started as a harmless traffic stop. Although it’s difficult to predict real-life emergencies with complete accuracy, appropriate training helps tackle them when they arise. This piece discusses ways police officers can prepare against the surging knife attacks. 

Why the Rise in Knife Attacks? 

In many parts of the world, owning a gun is illegal or difficult to achieve. Some countries require gun owners to be law enforcement personnel or a citizen of high social standing before issuing licenses to own a firearm. Even in places like America, you must still go through some checks to acquire a gun. If you have a criminal record, the checks can bar you from buying the weapon. Also, due to worldwide terrorism, intelligence services across the globe keep a close eye on arms movements, making it more challenging to acquire a gun illegally. If you legally own a gun, your name is probably on a list or two.

With a knife, you can simply walk into any cutlery store and pick one. You can also sharpen or modify it without raising suspicion since it’s a household tool. Moreover, knives are easier to conceal, draw, and use. 

For these reasons, more people are turning to knives for violent robberies and attacks. In 2022, the US recorded over 100,000 knife-related assaults. That made knives and other cutting tools the second most used assault weapon in the country after handguns. In the UK, knife violence rose by almost 90% from 2012 to 2019. It then dropped during the COVID-19 pandemic but rebounded right after. 

Whether or not these attacks are directly targeted at the police, an officer still has to tackle them. Here’s how cops are prepared to handle the growing number of knife attacks. 

The 21-Foot Rule

The 21-foot rule is a common concept in law enforcement circles. Multiple tests and simulations showed that an armed aggressor within 21 feet of an officer could get to them and fatally wound them before the officer draws their gun and pulls the trigger. Even officers who were able to take two shots within 1.5 seconds would still be injured by the attacker a good number of times in training. In general, an ill-intentioned person with a hand weapon within 21 feet of a police officer can badly wound the officer before they react to stop them.

This revelation advanced law-enforcement training and theory by placing a distance and time on the “reactionary gap.” Today, civilians and law enforcement personnel refer to the principle as the 21-foot rule. 

The Tueller Drill

There’s also a common self-defense training called the Tueller Drill. Although it bears Lt. Tueller’s name, he did not develop it. The drill involves unholstering your gun and firing two center-mass rounds at a human silhouette safely and quickly.  The idea is to help a trainee reduce their reaction gap. The quicker they can draw their pistol and fire two accurate shots at the target’s vitals, the smaller the reaction gap they’ll need. 

However, as law enforcement personnel, you must remember that the person acting often has an edge over you; you must react to their actions. This is mainly because it takes time to recognize the action, create a plan to counter it, and execute the counterplan. With the Tueller Drill, officers develop faster reactionary time, increasing their chances of neutralizing threats at close range. Like regular muscle-building or fat-burning exercises, such drills boost officers’ muscle memory, improving their likelihood of replicating training results in real-life scenarios. 

Close-Combat Tactics 

Most knife attacks, especially against officers, happen when the attacker lunges violently and abruptly toward the officer with a series of stabs from different angles. The attacker often keeps the weapon concealed until the officer is vulnerable or distracted, catching them off-guard. Once the aggressor gets to you, it’s usually too late to prevent the stabs. Most officers only notice they’ve been badly hurt once the attacker is off them. 

From an analysis of more than 200 knife attacks caught on camera, 71% of the offenders led attacks with a non-knifed hand. After initiating the attack, 80% latched onto the victims to control the distance and plan their escape. Targets that attempted to make backward escapes slipped and fell half of the time, suffering stabs before they could launch counterattacks. 

Defense Training

In some defensive instruction classes, trainees are placed in vulnerable positions and requested to respond to suspects spontaneously, pulling out edged weapons on them. In one training, 91 officers with different experience levels were put in a scenario where an aggressor launched a surprise attack using a trainer knife. The knife displayed audio and visual responses to every stab and slash, making it obvious when an officer suffered either. 

The law enforcers were informed that they’d meet a complainant inside, which led them all to approach and start a conversation within three feet. That’s the usual conversational distance for officers. Mid-conversation, the complainants attacked with trainer knives, stabbing them and latching onto their clothes, making it difficult to create distance. 

Nine cops instinctively closed the distance and tried to control the weapon. The attackers managed to stab them an average of 5.2 times before the officers could disarm and draw their guns to end the threat. The other 82 cops moved backward to create distance and draw their weapons. 40% slipped and fell, and all were stabbed an average of 6.5 times. 

The instructors then showed the trainees how to block and trap a knife and then make aggressive lateral instead of backward movements. The training was done several times before the simulation was initiated. Although every officer was still stabbed, they received an average of 1.5 stabs with this technique before neutralizing the threat. The findings of this drill encouraged police to fight in angles to increase their chances of surviving knife attacks. 

Tactical Gear

Most ballistic body armor is slash-resistant. Those made of materials like kevlar and ceramic are also stab-resistant. Officers are encouraged to wear these alongside slash-resistant gloves to increase their chances of stopping knife attacks without getting severely hurt. 

Legal Precedence

The other way a police officer is prepared to handle knife attacks is by knowing the laws involved. In all US states, drawing a knife and charging at an officer or any other person constitutes a threat to life. Law enforcers are tasked with protecting life and property and maintaining order. Therefore, when an armed aggressor approaches you or someone else aggressively beyond a certain point, you are allowed to use lethal force to neutralize them. From case law, 21 feet is considered a safe distance. If you shoot and kill an attacker rapidly pursuing you beyond this distance, qualified immunity shields you from any murder charges.

Final Thoughts

Overall, knife attacks are spontaneous and often surprising. Facing one can be scary, even for a trained officer. Unfortunately, as a cop, you cannot simply run away and leave a life in danger. It is your job to de-escalate the situation and neutralize the threat. The 21-foot rule, regular close-combat training, tactical gear, and knowledge of other applicable laws are ways to stay prepared to handle the rising knife attacks.