Delmont police use local instructor for state-mandated harm-reduction training

When Gov. Tom Wolf signed Act 59 of 2020 into law, one of its elements was mandatory police officer training to include harm-reduction components such as de-escalation, defensive and control tactics.

For Chief T.J. Klobucar of the Delmont Police Department, that was as simple as a quick phone call to Grand Master Michael Caruso of ATA Martial Arts in Murrysville.

“I’ve done training with Plum, Murrysville and Delmont police,” said Caruso, who trained Delmont officer Gregory Stull to be a defensive tactics instructor.

“I’ve been training with Mike since I was a patrolman in the ‘90s, but back then we had all part-timers,” Klobucar said. “Everyone was working for multiple departments and everyone was being trained differently. And we had a lot of part-timers here recently as well. Now, with five full-time officers and just a couple part-timers, we can invest more in our officers.”

For about three decades, Caruso has been an instructor with Illinois-based Human Factor Research Group, which provides a variety of training for law enforcement. The certification process is a roughly 40-hour course in tactics including the use of pressure points, joint locks, handcuffing technique, officer control and other elements.

“Our hope is that we can train officers to make arrests as quickly as possible without injury to the officer or to the person being arrested,” Caruso said.

Klobucar said being able to train so close to home is a big plus.

“Officer Stull will be able to use ATA’s facility in Murrysville to train our officers,” he said. “Even as a small department, we like to try and keep things in-house as often as possible.”

Because Caruso works with more than one department, Stull will also be able to learn with fellow trainers and officers from other police forces as well.

Stull said his big takeaway from the training was learning to refine and simplify the techniques used during interaction with a suspect.

“We worked on maximizing effectiveness with minimal energy spent,” said Stull, who has the added experience of having been certified as a medic since 1997, when he worked with Mutual Aid.

Caruso and Klobucar said the ATA facility is an ideal place for officers to undergo the training, which requires re-certification every three years.

“It’s nice that we have three departments doing the same training in the same place,” Klobucar said. “That way, when something happens in these communities, we’re all on the same page.”