Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu for Law Enforcement

Genetically Destined for Modern Policing

Officers training using BJJ to control a suspect

Jūjitsu has been responsive to policing needs for control and restraint since ancient Japan. Leverage-based techniques associated with jūjitsu such as joint locks and takedowns were a part of taiho jutsu (police capturing techniques) taught in Japan since the 1500s Mol, 2001; Tanemura, S. [nd]). In the early 1900s, after Kodokan judo displaced traditional jūjitsu in the Japanese mainstream, a committee of Kodokan judo masters developed the Torite-no-Kata, a set of techniques derived largely from traditional jūjitsu and judo for use in training by the Tokyo Metropolitan police; these techniques represent modern taiho jutsu (Bethers & Caracena, 2020; Craig, 2015).

Sustained ground fighting appears to have been a relatively late development within Japanese grappling traditions. That later emphasis is historically understandable because prolonged engagement on the ground would not have been an obvious tactical choice under earlier battlefield conditions, where armor restricted movement and mounted warriors remained a central feature of combat (Sato, 1995). By the early 1900s, however, some Japanese systems, including Fusen-ryū jūjitsu and Kosen judo, had begun to shift emphasis from throws and standing joint attacks toward ground control and positional dominance (Nakajima, 2013; Kimura et al., 2014). These methods helped reduce the advantages of size and strength that often determined conflicts that remained standing.

The emergence of Japanese ground-control methods in the early twentieth century also shaped the international development of grappling in policing. Jūjitsu and judo traveled beyond Japan during this period, including to Brazil, where ground control techniques were further refined through challenge matches, private instruction, and the developing practice of Gracie jiu-jitsu. Within that setting, the Gracie family became especially influential. Carlos Gracie and other Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioners were later sought out to train members of the Brazilian military and Brazilian law enforcement by the late 1920s (Gracie, 2014). This early connection to state security training shows that the applicability of Gracie jiu-jitsu principles in policing was recognized over 100 years ago.

After 50 years of refinement in Brazil, Gracie jiu-jitsu was introduced to the U.S. in the late 1970s. Following the dominance of Gracie jiu-jitsu in the first UFC tournaments in 1993 and 1994, U.S. law enforcement began expressing interest in learning Gracie jiu-jitsu for defensive tactics (Los Angeles Business Journal, 1997). The earliest organized curriculum of Gracie jiu-jitsu for specific application in U.S. law enforcement was called G.R.A.P.L.E. (Gracie, H., 2005). By about 2008, this police jiu-jitsu curriculum evolved into Gracie Survival Tactics, which is now recognized by POST organizations in at least 40 states.

The Science

For many years, Brazilian jiu-jitsu was discussed in policing mostly as a practical idea– it simply worked. Officers who trained often said it helped them stay calmer, control resistance more effectively, and avoid unnecessary strikes or escalation to the use of weapons. Recent research has begun to move the discussion beyond individual opinions. Emerging evidence-based literature now supports a straightforward conclusion: Brazilian jiu-jitsu-based training is a promising method for improving law enforcement control and restraint outcomes.

Butler, Gothe, and Petruzzello (2023) examined police recruits and defensive tactics training. Their study found that Brazilian jiu-jitsu offered during academy training improved recruits’ confidence in their ability to handle violent encounters. That matters because police use-of-force incidents are not only legal events. They are also physical and psychological events. Officers must manage fear, stress, movement, resistance, and uncertainty at the same time. Training that improves defensive tactics self-efficacy may help officers enter real encounters with greater composure and a clearer sense of what to do as resistance unfolds.

Butler and Wang (2024) moved the question closer to Brazilian jiu-jitsu itself. In a survey of more than 300 officers who trained in BJJ outside of police training, they found positive relationships between BJJ experience, use-of-force experience, and officer confidence in defensive tactics. Officers also reported improvements in stress, fitness, and perceived use-of-force performance after beginning BJJ training. This kind of study does not prove that BJJ automatically prevents every harmful outcome, but it strongly supports what many law enforcement trainers have observed: officers who train in grappling-based control often feel more capable when a subject resists.

The most outcome-relevant peer-reviewed field evidence comes from Huff, Zauhar, and Agniel (2024), who studied the Saint Paul Police Department’s 120-hour Response to Resistance and Aggression program. This program incorporated leverage-based control, de-escalation, communication, and teamwork. The study found that the training reduced reliance on pain-compliance tactics and was associated with reductions in officer injuries and significant subject injuries. This is especially important because the study looked beyond officer opinions; it examined real-world use-of-force outcomes after a department changed the way it trained officers to control resistance.

The Marietta, Georgia Police Department’s in-house experience also supports the same practical conclusion. Marietta implemented Brazilian jiu-jitsu training for officers and reported meaningful reductions in officer injuries, suspect injuries, Taser use, and overall use-of-force incidents. Because Marietta’s data came from an agency report rather than a peer-reviewed study, it should be treated cautiously. Still, it is highly relevant as a real-world example of a police department using BJJ to address the same problem identified in the academic literature: officers need safer and more reliable ways to control resistance without defaulting to infliction of injury.

The Police Executive Research Forum (PERF)’s 2024 restraint report addressed concerns about a recurring pattern of restrainee fatalities that have been associated with prone positioning since the 1990s (National Institute of Justice, 1995; Dunklin et al., 2024). Citing an article about Gracie SafeWrap, PERF acknowledged that Brazilian jiu-jitsu may offer methods that can improve safety outcomes in arrest struggles.

SafeWrap's crossover arm control demonstrated

SafeWrap is the latest contribution to policing science from Gracie jiu-jitsu. SafeWrap is a proprietary system of two-officer control that eliminates many of the dangers that prone struggles can present to officers, as well as minimizing many of the risks to restrainees. SafeWrap has been well-received by expert practitioners (Coleman, 2025; Putman, J., 2026), acknowledged by a medical expert (Gracie Breakdown, February 4, 2025), and one of its primary components (cross-over arm control) has demonstrated relative physiologic safety in controlled research (Scuderi et al., 2026).

Summary

Brazilian jiu-jitsu did not appear in policing by accident. Its roots trace back to jūjitsu’s long association with control-and-restraint methods, including joint locks, takedowns, and police-capturing techniques originating in Japan. Over time, certain jūjitsu and judo traditions developed a stronger emphasis on ground control, positional dominance, and leverage-based methods that could reduce the advantages of size and strength. Those strategies traveled to Brazil, where the Gracie family refined them into Brazilian jiu-jitsu. After Gracie jiu-jitsu’s success in the early UFC tournaments, U.S. law enforcement began looking seriously at its application to defensive tactics, eventually leading to specialized police curricula such as G.R.A.P.L.E. and the modern Gracie Survival Tactics.

The larger lesson is that Brazilian jiu-jitsu is valuable to policing because it teaches control, not fighting. Properly adapted BJJ gives officers tools for positional stabilization, leverage, restraint transitions, and composure under physical pressure. Modern guidance on police restraint methods, including PERF’s 2024 report, has emphasized the risks associated with prolonged prone restraint and the need for safer methods of managing arrest struggles. Newer developments such as Gracie SafeWrap and research on crossover arm control continue that same trajectory, building methods that help officers control resistance while reducing unnecessary risks to officers and restrainees. This trajectory can play a pivotal role in elevating respect for policing and public acceptance of police methods.