Every year, the FBI publishes a report titled “Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted.” According to this report, 41 law enforcement officers were feloniously killed in the line of duty in 2008. Year after year, the report outlines the fact that most officers are killed by firearms. But even when the suspect does not use a firearm, he or she may use other weapons to kill officers. The attacker may grip an edged weapon, use a blunt object, or steer a car into an officer. In all of these instances, suspects use their hands to kill.

From basic training to field training, officers are told, “Watch the suspect’s hands.” But you are not taught how to do it. Why haven’t law enforcement trainers developed an easily understandable method to teach you the specifics of suspect hand movement awareness? One answer is that trainers and veteran officers who are skilled at hand watching often have a hard time articulating how they do it. So they use simple phrases like, “Just keep an eye on the hands,” or “It’s important to always watch the hands.”

But this isn’t enough. It is imperative that you be able to recognize when suspects are using their hands to access and deploy weapons so you know how to respond. Never bring a control hold to a gun fight.

How to Watch the Hands

It wasn’t until I did some training a few years ago with Roy Harris, a world class martial artist and martial arts hall of fame member, that I learned how to watch the hands of a suspect. I could not believe how much this awareness training increased my officer safety. I shared this technique with academy trainees and advanced officers. I now have a very simple way to explain dangerous suspect hand movements, and I use this knowledge when I testify as an expert witness defending officers in use-of-force cases.

Harris began the training with a question: “How do people access weapons systems?” I naively replied, “With their hands.” He said, “OK, but how?” I didn’t have an answer.

Harris explained that under most circumstances when a person brings a weapon into play, she has to make at least two movements with her hand. First, the thumb and index finger move toward the center of their body. Next, the elbow moves out away from the body. By focusing on these telltale movements, officers can perceive when a weapon might be coming into play and respond accordingly.

Although they might be a precursor to an assault on the officer, movements of the hands away from the center of the body where the thumb and index finger are not extended are less of a threat than movements where the thumb and index fingers are moving to the center of the body.

Forecast Hand Movements

One underutilized technique is forecasting the hand movements of a contact. For example, if you want to determine the identity of a contact, you will typically ask for a driver’s license or another form of identification. Instead of saying, “I need to see your license,” say, “Where do you keep your identification?” You need to know where the suspect’s hands will be going in order to perform the requested action. You also should ask, “What form of ID do you have?” There is a big difference between someone saying, “I keep my driver’s license in my wallet,” and “I keep my release from prison paperwork and my parole card in my wallet.” In either case, you need to know where the suspect’s hands are going.

The reason this is so important is a person makes the same hand motions to get a wallet from his rear pocket as he would to access a weapon from the same area. First, the thumb and index finger move toward the center of the body. Next, the elbow moves out away from the body. You don’t want to overreact to a movement that you told the suspect to make.

A better option is to forecast the movement, and to have the subject turn sideways so you can see what he is retrieving from his pocket. Tell the subject to use only his thumb and forefinger to slowly remove his wallet. Once the wallet is out, tell him to remove his identification. Many agencies do not take wallets from contacts prior to arrest. This is a good practice because it limits the subject’s ability to allege that an officer took something, like money, from the wallet during the initial contact.

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