The Colony Police Department is on a mission to make sure citizens are prepared with the knowledge of how to protect themselves.
Police taught several city employees lessons in self-defense after an issue at the local library.
“We had an incident where one of the librarians had a male subject come in and he was holding her by the hand and he was leading her around the library and making her feel uncomfortable,” Officer Kyle Koiner explained. “[He was] asking her questions about how many librarians they had and how many people work there.”
Koiner said the man was later arrested.
“He left and came back a couple days later," he said. "Officers showed up and found out that he had been criminally trespassed from the place and was arrested for that. So, that [made] the librarians and other employees a little uneasy.”
Police decided to teach the librarians techniques to help keep them safe. Those techniques, they said, could benefit anyone.
“One of our female officers came in and was able to teach them a few self-defense tactics,” Koiner said. “Also other things such as don’t leave the building going to your car by yourself, walk in pairs or more of that. Especially with Daylights Saving Time and it’s dark when they leave.”
Local
The latest news from around North Texas.
They taught the employees how to physically stun a possible attacker.
“A few hits like palm strike to the face or groin shots to a male person that’s going to assault them,” Koiner said. “Just enough to get them away from the area. The important thing is to stun the person and get away. You’re not there to try to fight the person. You just want to get away and then call the police.”
Police said these are simple tactics that could help.
“Rush to an area where there are more people. Get your phone out and dial 911,” Officer Brian Lee added. “A lot of times just dialing it, even if you can’t say anything at the time, it might alert the dispatcher where you could be.”
Officers dressed in padded suits allowed the participants to realistically hit and kick them.
“It lets the people in training go up maybe 70 percent or 80 percent. If you didn’t have this, it would be more maybe going through the motions,” Lee said. “We wanted them to see how it feels to go 80 percent against somebody and be able to kick somebody and do it realistically.”
Police said the first line of defense is being aware of your surroundings.
“Look around, pick you head up. Don’t look at your phone,” Koiner said. “Get your keys and everything out before you start walking to your car from the store or your place of business.”
Koiner said if you feel less safe, make sure someone knows you are in trouble.
“Make it known that someone is advancing on them,” he said. “Yell at them and tell them to stop and also start running away. Make a big scene.”
The Colony Police were able to offer this class to city employees, but it is not open to the public at this time. Koiner said there are classes offered across North Texas at martial arts centers and even free classes online. But, he said it is worth paying a cost to learn the tactics.
“It may cost some money, but it's well worth it in the end,” Koiner said.
“Hopefully in the future we can have a program up and running here,” Lee added. “That’s what our goal is for the public.”
