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    “Put your hands up and step out of the car!”: Caribbean civilian and military law enforcement, NCIS security specialists practice vehicle and house searches

    Nothing In The Trunk

    Photo By Gunnery Sgt. Tyler Hlavac | Columbia National Police Sgt. Julian Rey (left) and Panama National Air-Naval Service...... read more read more

    ST. JOHN'S, ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA

    03.11.2011

    Story by Cpl. Tyler Hlavac 

    U.S. Marine Corps Forces, South

    CAMP CRABBS, Antigua and Barbuda – Three Naval Criminal Investigative Service Physical Security Specialists spent the day conducting high-risk vehicle stops and responding to mock bomb threats alongside more than 20 Caribbean and South American civilian and military law enforcement personnel March 11 during exercise Tradewinds 2011.

    The training was part of an overall 11-day package offered by NCIS staff that covered such topics as basic law enforcement techniques, detection of installation surveillance and crime scene investigation.

    For the vehicle and bomb threat training, the NCIS instructors gathered the students at the Royal Antigua and Barbuda Defense Force’s Camp Crabbs and had the students take turns conducting scenarios at two different stations.

    The first station was the high-risk vehicle stop, which is a term used to describe a situation where a law enforcement official must search a car that could have armed and dangerous personnel inside.

    Utilizing real vehicles, fake guns and RABDF recruits posing as suspects, the NCIS instructors had the Caribbean students take turns safely removing the ‘mock’ suspects from the vehicle, searching them and then the vehicle for any illegal weapons.

    The second station took place at an empty house on the camp, where instructors hid various mock bombs throughout the house. Role-playing that they were responding to a bomb threat, the students then had to search the house in small groups and locate the bombs without setting them off.

    Columbia National Police Sgt. Julian Rey said the training is beneficial to him because he may encounter some of the training scenarios in the course of his duties due to the activities of such groups as Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia in his homeland.

    “This training is a new experience for me; even the smallest details make it an experience. For example, the way they (the NCIS staff) approach the vehicles is not something we do.”

    Physical Security Specialist Randy Thomas, one of the course instructors, said that teaching the class was difficult due to the fact that the students came from 15 different countries, which meant they had 15 different ways of doing things. Further complicating matters was the vast range in experience levels of the students, which ranged from detectives and constables to military police and SWAT team members.

    However, Thomas said that watching the students learn and understand the subject material made the day’s work rewarding.

    “I think the training went well,” said Thomas. “I noticed how they took what we suggested, and some who seemed reluctant at first took the information on board and incorporated it. That’s what makes it all worthwhile.”

    Tradewinds is a joint-combined, interagency exercise involving U.S. personnel from the Marine Corps, Coast Guard, Army, Navy, Air Force, National Guard, Joint-interagency Task Force-South, Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation along with forces from: Antigua and Barbuda (host nation), Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Canada, Colombia, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panama, St. Kitts-Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Suriname, Trinidad-Tobago.

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    NEWS INFO

    Date Taken: 03.11.2011
    Date Posted: 03.12.2011 14:35
    Story ID: 66942
    Location: ST. JOHN'S, AG

    Web Views: 331
    Downloads: 2

    PUBLIC DOMAIN