For the first time in several years, the Troy Police Department will offer a free R.A.D. basic self-defense course for women beginning Monday.

Sgt. Mike O’Hara said a local mother with a teenage daughter preparing to leave for college asked if the department would once again offer the Rape, Aggression Defense course.

“We try to provide women with the knowledge and basic defensive tactical skills they need to defend themselves,” O’Hara said. “We also try to make them more aware of their surrounding to make them feel safer in their every day lives.”

Women age 12 and up are encouraged to participate. Classes will be 6 to 9 p.m. Monday, Tuesday and Thursday in the First Baptist Church Activities Building. The three days of the course will compound on each other, with the students learning more and more complex skills each night.

“They will learn techniques that will allow them to defend themselves if there is someone trying to hit them,” O’Hara said. “They will even learn a couple of techniques for self-defense with people on top of them trying to hold them down. We will also teach them to strike basic vulnerable locations on the body that will usually give them the type of reactions they want.”

O’Hara said the class encouraged women to have a strong sense of awareness of their environments and to flee the scene of an attack, rather than stand and fight.

“So many times a day we become complacent, especially with watching out for safety concerns,” O’Hara said. “We try to teach the women basic skills that will become second nature to them – simple things like looking in the backseat of your car when you get in at night.”

After completing the course, students will receive a R.A.D. student manual and a signed certificate with a “lifetime return and practice” policy, meaning the women may return to any R.A.D. course and practice for free.

R.A.D. is the largest network of its kind with more than 1,000 instructors specializing in Rape, Aggression Defense techniques and is the only self-defense program endorsed by the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators, National Academy of Defense Education, the National Self-Defense Institute and Redman Training Gear. Approximately 900,000 women have been trained by the program since its start in 1989.

Women wanting to attend the class or seeking more information are asked to email O’Hara at mohara@pd.troyal.gov or call the Troy Police Department at 566-0500 and ask for O’Hara.