UK police are trained to sit people up asap after being down on the ground because forcing people to lay prone for extended periods isn’t exactly great for breathing. On top of that they use rigid handcuffs which afford a lot of control over someone who’s detained (especially compared to the loose American design).
Beyond that it’s the use of painful but low-risk tools which are limited to when a situation escalates – tasers and spray hurt like fuck but are unlikely to cause lasting damage and officers pulling them (even without discharging) have a heap of paperwork waiting for them afterwards to document every move they made and why.
