A new restraint technique created for healthcare workers dealing with violent or emotionally disturbed patients has caught the interest of the Los Angeles Police Department.
The technique is about safety — reducing the risk of injury for everyone involved, according to its founders Ryron and Rener Gracie, co-owners and head instructors at Gracie University in Torrance, which teaches Brazilian jujitsu.
It was developed at the request of the UC Irvine Medical Center, which reached out to the Gracie brothers in June 2024 and asked if they could create a method of restraint that utilized no strikes, no joint locks — pushing body parts to the point of causing pain — and no choke holds.
“There was a need to develop techniques that allow safety officers to manage aggressive behaviors in a clinical setting to protect patients, visitors, and clinical co-workers from potential harm,” said John Murray, a spokesman for the medical center.
Rener Gracie was initially skeptical and didn’t believe such a method could even exist, but he decided to try anyway — and SafeWrap was developed shortly after.
SafeWrap takes two healthcare workers or officers to maximize control over the subject’s upper and lower body by wrapping it up. The restrained person is placed on one side. That minimizes diaphragm compression and allows for a conversation to calm down the person and for monitoring for any medical distress.
Compared to the so-called prone restraint, which places the person on his or her stomach, SafeWrap reduces a person’s ability to push up and try to escape. It also makes more visible the hands, which could have a knife or reach for a weapon tucked into the waistband.
“The Gracie-developed method utilizes leverage and body positioning to establish a safer and more practical position of control, as our public-safety team always strives to use the least intrusive methods to prevent harm,” Murray said.
The Gracies’ defense tactics are now used by UCI nurses, physicians, and other clinical caregivers.
Inside the LAPD’s Ahmanson Recruit Training Center a recent day, a room bustled as over 30 LAPD officers, law enforcement members, and healthcare workers gathered for training hosted by the department alongside the Gracie brothers, whose family shares a long history with LAPD. It was one of the first large police agencies to incorporate tactics taught by the Gracies’ father, Ultimate Fighting Championship co-founder Rorion Gracie in the early 1990s.
“Officers are more likely to get in a physical confrontation than have to use lethal force and rely on their gun or Taser in a situation,” said Sgt. Cleon Joseph of the LAPD’s arrest-and-control training unit.
He has advocated for the technique to become a part of the department’s training.
“We have this detailed training with firearms and Tasers, and it’s very good training,” Joseph said. “But when it comes to the hands-on, do we have one system of training that all of the officers can feel confident in?”
The sergeant said SafeWrap is in the early process of being introduced to the LAPD and undergoing the approval process. If approved, it would first be taught to recruits and then the other officers.
A 20-year mixed-martial artist himself, Joseph began training with Gracie University in 2018 after he attended Gracie Survival Tactics, a jujitsu training program that offers defensive techniques specialized for law enforcement. Since then, the LAPD sergeant said his skill levels have “shot up.” He believes SafeWrap meets the criteria for a “fundamental two-man system” he had been searching for since the early 2000s — and it brings a hands-on approach to de-escalation training.
“If I can teach you to be competent in a moment, to wait ’til a person calms down, now we’re getting somewhere,” Joseph said.
At the training center, participants split into groups and played out different use-of-force scenarios on the practice mats. In between drills, group members alternated, with one acting as a resistant and erratic person, while two others tried to subdue him or her.
LAPD Training Officer Neil Warren was one of those taking the course. He said SafeWrap “definitely has its place” in law enforcement.
SafeWrap is meant to offer a safer alternative to the prone restraint, where the individual is held face-down with his or her hands behind their back. The prone restraint, which LAPD and many other police agencies deploy and is considered a “less-lethal” force, has been questioned because of its high fatality rate.
Warren, who has spent eight of his 20 years with the LAPD in the arrest-and-control-training unit, said SafeWrap benefits patrol officers who work in pairs by allowing them to “use their partner” and gain more control with a coordinated approach.
Rasha Gerges Shields, vice-president of the Los Angeles Police Commission, which oversees LAPD, played the resistant person while Rener Gracie was one of those deploying SafeWrap.
“Am I hurting you right now?” Rener Gracie asked her.
“No, just my ego,” she replied.
The onlookers laughed.
At $850 per attendee at the Ahmanson, the 16-hour program was split over two days and covered verbal de-escalation, restraint, use of teamwork for safer takedowns, various restraint procedures, and how to stay safe if you’re alone and being attacked. After completing the program, participants could teach members of their agency.
“I’ll be very interested in hearing feedback from the participants who attended the training,” Shields said. “If this turns out to be something that the officers try and believe is a superior method, as someone in the oversight world, I can only encourage that.”