Disarming druggies? Try verbal judo, lawmen told

“Verbal judo” may serve as an antidote to certain extrajudicial killings that have marred the Duterte administration’s war on drugs.

A police chief on Thursday pushed for  using verbal judo to “disarm” drug suspects police personnel were about to arrest as part of the war on drugs.

“Just by your use of words, you would have overcome the enemy,” Cebu provincial director Senior Supt. Eric Noble said, pitching the use of verbal judo, which he noted was used by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in its operations.

Noble was among police regional directors who testified on details of their police antidrug operations at the last hearing of the joint Senate committees investigating alleged extrajudicial killings amid the bloody war on drugs.

PNP guideline

Sen. Gregorio Honasan II asked how policemen go about arresting drug suspects and enhancing the police guideline of “move, communicate, shoot” so that mistakes would not be committed “at the expense of human lives and this issue of extrajudicial killings would go away.”

Honasan referred to policemen as “protector[s] of life, liberty and property,” including criminals.

Policemen have to know the use of force, in which they have basic training, according to Noble.

But Noble said policemen should adopt the training of the FBI, which makes use of verbal skills to overcome the enemy. He called this set of skills “verbal judo.”

Like Philippine National Police Director General Ronald dela Rosa, Noble attended the FBI Academy and specialized in “psychological leadership” and in criminal reactions.

“We should study this verbal use of force. We should study the profiles of people to be arrested so that when we call their attention (during police operations) they would surrender right away,” the Cebu provincial director told Honasan.

Noble said this could render the use of force “unnecessary.”

Disarming with words

Policemen, according to the Cebu police chief, could use the suspect’s language and choose certain words that would coax him to surrender.

“So the suspect will be disarmed by using words,” Noble said.

He expressed hope that this kind of training would be used at the PNP Academy and regional training centers.

In Cebu province, Noble said drug suspects tended to shoot at arresting policemen right away. He said the police had seized 97 firearms, eight of which were high-powered, like M14 rifles.

So far 53 have been killed in police operations against drug suspects in the province, according to Noble.

The Cebu police are investigating the death of 52 other drug suspects, who, he said, were killed by unknown assailants.

Sen. Leila de Lima lauded Noble for his statements, saying there are other ways to neutralize suspects.

“Because killing should be the last resort. I think that’s understood by everyone,” De Lima said.