The officer stepped in when he saw Luc Jacques Malick Brachet (54) threatening his neighbours and their friend in the driveway of their home at Clos Saut Falluet in St Brelade.
The court was told that the defendant dropped the three knives when he realised the man in front of him was an off-duty policeman.
Magistrate Bridget Shaw said that she wanted the court’s thanks to be conveyed to the officer, who had ‘stepped in unarmed and without any resources to tackle a man with knives’.
She accepted that Brachet, who pleaded guilty to causing an affray, was a first-time offender and imposed a sentence of 180 hours of community service.