V.I. police and other first responders wrapped up a four-day emergency response training workshop Friday on St. Thomas. The workshop was offered by the Academy of Counter Terrorist Education at Louisiana State University and hosted by the Virgin Islands Territorial Emergency Management Agency.
Four classes of 30 students each took part in classroom presentations as well as hands-on hostage and gunman scenarios held at the former Evelyn Marcelli school facility. Instructors addressed the technical aspects of planning and implementing a rapid law enforcement deployment to an active shooter incident.
Officers took on the roles of hostages and armed gunmen as fellow officers responded in pairs under the watchful eyes of the program’s four military-trained instructors.
In one scenario, an upstairs common room at the school was filled with screaming and panic-stricken “bystanders,” repeated gunfire and smoke, forcing the responding officers, armed with plastic bullets, to rely solely on instinct in apprehending a lone gunman.
All this while trying to follow the drill leader’s critical instructions.
“The noise, the smell of gunpowder and the screaming is meant to take away the hesitation factor in our officers,” said V.I. Deputy Chief of Police Dwanye Degraff. “Each single hostage today represents 20 in a real event. The more we train, the more lives can be saved.”
All enforcement agents in the territory must pass the same standardized police academy program, and are always on call as members of the general police force even after they are assigned a permanent position with another enforcement agency.
Protocols involving emergency first response vary, according to training coordinator Irwin Mason.
“We never know in a hostage threat incident who will be the first on the scene. This is why we cross-train each officer be they from the police department, the V.I. Lottery or Licensing and Consumer Affairs. The advanced tactical training offered through this federally subsidized program is meant to save lives,” said Mason. “To date, over 200 local officers have taken part in the program.”
Friday’s final training course seemed timely given the recent tragedy in Newtown, Conn. in December. While this program is not in direct response to that incident according to Mason, he said they did first initiate this class locally following the mass shooting in Aurora, Colo. in July 2012.
This week’s workshop is also meant to provide training for agents in the territory to create their own protocol program and develop the necessary skills to provide locally standardized training. The same workshop is scheduled for the end of January on St. Croix.
