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As an aside from the main topic, the improvised weapons things is just a myth. Kobudo weapons were designed as such and before they ever made it to the Ryukyu kingdom. (For example, nunchucks are just a symmetrical flail.) Kobudo, like Karate, came from Chinese martial arts.
Aikido gets kind of some flak for working on compliant partners... unresisting partners... what if parts of Aikido was tooled for police/law enforcement where a "compliant partner" is present - - > an arrested or detained person trying to resist?? oR how about tuning Aikido into more offense, so instead of relying on an opponent's attack to do your moves - - to punching and moving TOWARDS an opponent to execute your aikido? that might be attractive, moving it away from being mostly defensive/reactive.
One of the instructors in my aikido lineage, Bill Sosa, did what you mention. He put together a program of aikido for police officers, and even wrote a book specifically addressing it. As we've often heard, a sport fight is different in nature from a real world assault. The same holds true for a physical engagement where the goal is restraint and arrest. All three have things in common and to those who are not fluent in the language of violence, can look quite similar. But they are quite different and require different skills. Being good in one field doesn't mean you will be good in another. Of the three, the techniques and methods aikido employs are best suited for restraint and arrest. Just my opinion.
