Police Training and Skill Retention: What Remains After the Course

COMBATIVES RESEARCH CS-001 POLICE PHYSICAL CONTROL

ARTICLE 07 · TRAINING & SKILL RETENTION

Learning a skill does not mean retaining it.

An officer may learn a technique during a course, perform it correctly during an assessment, and then go months without needing to use it again.

When a physical encounter finally occurs, the question is no longer only what was taught.

It also matters how much of that skill remained available after training.

This interval between learning, practicing, and needing to perform is one of the central problems of any skills-based training.

DISTINCTION

Having been trained does not mean maintaining the same level of performance indefinitely.

TRAINING ≠ PERFORMANCE

Between the course and the encounter, there is time.

Courses usually have a beginning and an end. Skills need to continue to exist after they are over.

An assessment conducted immediately after training may show that certain information was understood or that a particular task could be performed at that moment.

It does not automatically tell us what performance will look like weeks or months later.

Nor does it tell us how the skill will be used when a real situation requires perception, decision-making, and execution at the same time.

Assessing what someone can do at the end of a course and assessing what remains available later are different questions.

RETENTION

“Training” is not a single skill.

Police work may require different components of performance.

Knowledge, perception, decision-making, communication, and physical execution are not necessarily learned or retained in the same way.

Knowledge

Recalling rules, procedures, principles, and criteria presented during training.

Recognition

Identifying relevant cues and recognizing changes in the situation before deciding how to respond.

Decision-Making

Selecting a response appropriate to the problem presented and modifying that decision when the situation changes.

Communication

Using instructions, listening, and other interpersonal skills under operational conditions.

Physical Execution

Producing movements with sufficient control, timing, positioning, and coordination for the task.

Integration

Combining perception, decision-making, communication, and physical action within a sequence that continues to change.

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF JUSTICE

The effects of training can also weaken over time.

Evaluations of the ICAT — Integrating Communications, Assessment, and Tactics police de-escalation training program provide a useful example of this problem.

Research presented by the National Institute of Justice found post-training changes in officers’ attitudes, knowledge, and behavior, as well as observed reductions in use of force and injuries within the context studied.

But the evaluation also identified a problem: some of the effects of training weakened over time.

According to the NIJ summary, a lack of reinforcement by supervisors contributed to this process. The critical decision-making model used in ICAT was identified as one of the components that deteriorated more rapidly.

Training can produce an effect and still require reinforcement for that effect to be maintained.

LONGITUDINAL STUDY · POLICE OFFICERS

Measuring again months later changes the question.

A longitudinal study involving frontline police officers evaluated an intervention designed to modulate physiological responses during stressful scenarios involving lethal-force decisions.

Researchers followed the participants after the intervention, including assessments conducted at 6, 12, and 18 months.

The observed gains remained present in assessments through 12 months. At 18 months, some of the results began moving back toward pre-intervention levels.

The study is specific: it evaluated one intervention, one sample, and particular performance measures. It does not establish a universal expiration period for police skills.

01 Post-Training

Assessment conducted immediately in relation to the intervention.

02 6 Months

A new assessment makes it possible to observe whether performance is maintained.

03 12 Months

The gains assessed by the study remained present.

04 18 Months

Some results began moving back toward earlier levels.

THERE IS NO SINGLE CLOCK

Different skills may have different retention curves.

It would be incorrect to turn one specific study into a statement such as “a police skill lasts twelve months.”

Retention may depend on the skill being studied, the quality of initial learning, frequency of practice, task complexity, the context in which the skill is performed, and how performance is assessed.

A skill practiced routinely does not necessarily follow the same trajectory as one that is rarely used.

For this reason, the more methodologically useful question is not simply “how long does a technique last?”

The question is: which skill, trained how, practiced how often, and assessed by what measure?

TRAINING & FIELD PERFORMANCE

Improving in training does not by itself guarantee an operational outcome.

Another important distinction appears in contemporary evaluations of police training.

A randomized trial published in 2026 examined a de-escalation program using systematic observation of body-worn camera footage and administrative use-of-force records.

The training improved intermediate behaviors, including aspects of communication observed by the researchers.

However, in this specific study, that improvement did not produce a statistically demonstrated reduction in use-of-force incidents.

This result illustrates why different levels of evaluation need to remain separate.

Learning, behavior, and operational outcomes are not the same measure.

FROM THE COURSE TO ROUTINE PRACTICE

Repetition is not an administrative detail.

If a particular capability declines when it is no longer practiced or reinforced, training frequency becomes part of the problem.

This shifts the discussion from a simple question — “did the officer receive training?” — to more precise questions about continuity.

When did the training occur? Was there subsequent practice? Were refresher sessions provided? Did supervisors reinforce the principles? Was performance reassessed?

These questions are particularly important for skills that are used infrequently but required in high-consequence situations.

A completed course is a record. Skill maintenance is a process.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

“Was the officer trained?” is not enough.

To understand the relationship between training and performance, several distinctions need to be made before drawing any conclusions.

What skill was trained?

How much time was devoted to training?

How was performance assessed immediately afterward?

How much time had passed since the training?

Was there practice or refresher training during that interval?

Was the skill used on the job during that period?

Does the assessment measure knowledge, decision-making, communication, or physical execution?

Was performance tested again after weeks or months?

Does the assessment environment approximate the real demands of the task?

Is the measured outcome learning, retention, behavior, or an operational outcome?

COMBATIVES RESEARCH · CS-001

Training and real-world encounters belong to different levels of evidence.

CS-001 — COMBATIVES Physical Control Study

Observational Study of the Dynamics of Resistance and Physical Control in Police Encounters

The central focus of CS-001 is the observable dynamics of encounters involving physical resistance and police physical control.

The training literature helps interpret the context in which particular skills are taught, maintained, and assessed, but it does not justify inferring an officer’s training history solely from observing an encounter.

Likewise, observing a particular behavior on video does not, by itself, establish when, where, or how that skill was learned.

TRAINING RECEIVED ≠ SKILL RETAINED ≠ OBSERVED PERFORMANCE

And where do martial arts fit in?

Judo, wrestling, jiu-jitsu, and other contact-based practices are increasingly part of the discussion about physical preparation and police control.

But experience in a martial art, self-defense training, and police training are not automatically equivalent.

The next article examines what research actually allows us to say about martial arts and police training.

Knowing how to fight and performing a police function are problems that intersect — but they are not the same problem.

SOURCES & REFERENCES

Retention needs to be measured over time.

National Institute of Justice

What Works in De-Escalation Training. 2023. Summary of evaluations of the ICAT program, including observed outcomes and the weakening of training effects over time.

Engel, Robin S. et al.

Evaluations of Integrating Communications, Assessment, and Tactics — ICAT, including studies conducted with U.S. police departments and presented by the National Institute of Justice.

Andersen, Judith P.; Gustafsberg, Harri

Reducing Lethal Force Errors by Modulating Police Physiology. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 2018. Longitudinal study including post-intervention retention assessments.

McLean, Kyle; Bussey, P. Trey; Nix, Justin; Rojek, Jeffrey; Alpert, Geoffrey P.

Police de-escalation training and its effects on communication: Evidence from an experimental evaluation. Journal of Criminal Justice, 2026. Experimental evaluation of training, observed behavior, and use of force.

National Institute of Justice

Research and Evaluation on Policing. NIJ research areas include evaluation of use-of-force training, de-escalation, decision-making, and the relationship between training and field behavior.

Retention studies should be interpreted according to the skill, intervention, population, follow-up period, and performance measure used. Findings for one specific skill do not establish a universal retention period for police training.

Changes observed immediately after training also do not, by themselves, demonstrate that the same effect will persist over time or produce a particular operational outcome. Learning, retention, behavior, and outcomes need to be analyzed separately.

External references are used for literature review and conceptual development. They do not constitute original findings of CS-001. The citation of researchers, institutions, and organizations is solely for documentary and research purposes and does not imply affiliation, certification, support, sponsorship, or institutional endorsement of COMBATIVES™.

COMBATIVES RESEARCH · CS-001 · ARTICLE 07

The course ends. The need for the skill does not.

Knowing what was taught matters.

Knowing when it was taught, how much it was practiced, and what remained available afterward matters too.

Between training and a real-world encounter, there is one variable that cannot be ignored: time.

Learn.
Practice.
Retain.
Be able to perform when needed.