Retired Constable Alan D. Arsenault (B.Sc., B.Ed., M.S.M.) was a 27-year street veteran of the Vancouver Police Department in Canada who retired from policing in 2006.
He taught for seven years at the Justice Institute of British Columbia (Police Academy and Law Enforcement Studies). Having trained in martial arts since 1971, Al shares exciting and innovative control and arrest developments through this Police Judo series of books. He is the author of Chin Na in Ground Fighting (2003) and Comprehensive Joint-Locking Techniques for Law Enforcement (2021).
Expertise Areas
- Street Policing
- Control and Arrest Tactics
- Drug Addiction and Drug Policy
- Streets Drugs and Their Use
- Non-Firearm (Street) Weapons
- Testifying in Court
- Public Speaking and Media Interviews
- Surveillance and Undercover Work
- Tactical Communications
- Teaching, Writing, and Film Work
- World Travel
Al is a retired Vancouver Police Officer, a Career he proudly served for 27 years (1979-2006). He has worked in the entire city of Vancouver, the Jail, the Juvenile Car, Strike Force, Crowd Control and Tactical Trainers’ Group, Outlaw Motorcycle Gang Unit Member, and he has done undercover work. His longest tenure has been as a beat officer in the DTES (approximately 15 years, in over four tours of duty). He chose to work these mean streets (and to remain as a constable) because he had a strong passion for the vocation of street policing and working with drug addicts. He has cell-mated murderers/rapists/career criminals, and he has extensive experience in physically arresting criminals while testifying in all levels of court, including being a subject matter expert on non-firearm weapons and street weapons. Al is also an expert in Tactical Communications, having taught Canada’s National Park Wardens, police, and civilians coast to coast.
Al has been awarded a score of commendations. He was a Founding Member of the Crowd Control Unit (a veteran of the 1994 Stanley Cup Riot!), a Control Tactics Trainer who has studied police self-defence and physical fitness programs in Hong Kong, China, Japan, Australia and the RCMP Depot in Regina in 1986. He also conducted a more extensive second use-of-force training tour for most of 2024 and 2025. Being a lifelong martial artist expert with advanced black belts in Karate and Sanshou Dao (and a black belt in Judo) helped him co-found the new martial art of Police Judo (2010). He now sporadically teaches at the various Police Judo clubs; he has been a contract Control Tactics Instructor and Applied Law Enforcement Instructor at the JIBC’s Police Academy and Justice and Public Safety Divisions, respectively (2008 – 2014), providing linkage with Judo to the tactical applications of control and arrest (and handcuffing) techniques. Al continues to teach use of force and arrest tactics through the Police Judo Association (LETA- Law Enforcement Training Association). Al is a published martial arts author (Chin Na in Ground Fighting – 2003), and Comprehensive Joint-Locking Techniques for Law Enforcement (2021); he is currently working on a series of Police Judo books (2010 to present). Al is also familiar with filmmaking through Odd Squad Productions Society, a charitable organization he helped found in 1997. He co-directed the award-winning documentary Tears for April (2007), a follow-up film to the NFB’s top feature-length documentary Through a Blue Lens (1999).
Al has his own consulting company (Attactics Consulting and Training) in order to give back to the community through his wealth of knowledge and experience. He has presented and lectured on use-of-force training in Canada, USA, China, Taiwan, and Switzerland. Al has also made anti-drug presentations to tens of thousands of students, as well as presented on policing and drug issues across Canada, in the United States, Argentina, Ecuador, England, Tanzania, and the United Arab Emirates (Dubai).