why do cops pin people on their stomachs and wrestlers pin people on their backs?

Wrestling is done for sporting purposes. The match is over when you get a 2 count. That was a surprise to me when I was in high school. I thought it was a 3 count because of all of the Pro wrestling that I had seen. LOL The intent is much different for self defense. But a wrestler if in a self defense situation will still respond the same way because that is what they know and have been taught.

Police want the suspect face down. This keeps the suspect from number one being able to get control of the officer's gun. That is the top priority of LE. Also by being face down it is more difficult to strike or kick. This protects the officers.

Consider the intent of the officer. His/Her life is on the line. If they do something wrong they can lose their life and likely lose their life by being killed by their own weapon.

In wrestling if you lose you can always go back a train some more to improve and try again another day.

You can have control from either position if you know what to do. My preference would be to pin them face down. This is because it is safer for me. Also, since I;m not law enforcement, I like to choke them out to end the threat quickly. My favorite chokes are from this position.

EDIT:

The cop is not trying to pin. He is trying to control and keep the suspect from their weapon. They will use their bodyweight,position or tonfa to aid them until the suspect stop fighting or they get some help. They are not trained for submissions. They do know some limited pain compliance things from aikido/jujutsu basically to control the wrist in order to handcuff. The use of the knew in the neck and side is the same in all martial arts when we want to control a person after we take them down.

Cops deal with really bad guys who mean business and they want to go home at the end of the day so they pin face down. It's much safer that way for the cop.

Wrestling is sports that fits more into the category of entertainment. Where is the entertainment if you got your opponent pinned in a few seconds? It's much more fun to watch if the opponent can fight back as long as possible and you can't easily fight a person that is behind you. A drawn out fight makes the audience happy and the sponsors happy because they have more time to advertise products which brings in the money.

Face-down pin offers significantly more control, but is a more difficult position to get the bad guy into.

Law enforcement officers (LEOs) are trained to pin people on their stomachs for several reasons. By applying pressure to the center of gravity (lower back) a suspect can be restrained in a way that doesn't allow him to move around or more importantly hurt himself/others nearby. The officer stays dominant and has leverage on his side while using as little energy as possible to apprehend the suspect as quickly as possible.

Wrestlers, during competition, very rarely handle each other like that. A good wrestler would never get pinned face-down unless he really messed up. In terms of competition, if it were ever pulled off, I believe that a wrestler can best utilize this position by transitioning to a rear mount or side mount and going for submission.

The reason cops pin people on their stomachs is because it is easier to handcuff them from this position. If a cop pins someone on their back, and the suspect just so happens to know some juijitsu, they could pose a greater threat to the cop then standing.

Cops pin people on their backs because you can't fight someone who is sitting on your back. Wrestlers pin people on their backs because it would be extremely hard to get someone pinned on their stomach for a sport. As for more control I would say that the cop has the most control in their situation.

This is the safest way to contain a person. Especially when other officers are watching your back.

Police grapple way more than they strike, for good reason. No need to strike most times, and it looks real bad if you are seen or caught on vidoe. You have much more control when they are face down. They can form no guard at all from there.

Im sure the cops method has evolved from hard earned lessons....its about protecting them from the perp and the perp from themselves..i dont have any more to add :)

Because cops aren't doing this as a "sport". They are doing it so that they don't get hurt.

well I try to take ppls backs I think you have more control from the back but then again from the front I can see what there trying to do better