Regiment Helps Train Trinidad Police Service
Four members of the Royal Bermuda Regiment traveled to Trinidad and Tobago to help train their police service on crowd control methods.
A spokesperson said, “Members of a public order unit in the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service [TTPS] are updating their methods of crowd control thanks to training from the Royal Bermuda Regiment [RBR].
“Four RBR soldiers travelled to the Caribbean country to deliver a comprehensive package of instruction that will not only modernise techniques but will also leave officers equipped to teach the drills within their own organisation.
“The public order course is aligned with Tradewinds 2025, a US Southern Command-sponsored exercise that will begin in Trinidad and Tobago later this month.
“Five women and 21 men from the TTPS are receiving the training.”
Warrant Officer Class 2 Tim Furr, the RBR’s chief instructor for the programme, explains: “They are familiar with public order drills, just not the drills that we’re teaching. Some of it is similar but one of the biggest differences is that they’re used to using six-foot shields whereas we use four-foot shields.”
He says: “This group is very keen, very energetic, you can tell they have worked together before, which has made our job so much easier. They’re taking on everything we’re teaching them and have been putting it into play very well.”
The spokesperson said, “The RBR training team has also included Colour Sergeant Runekco Edwards, Colour Sergeant Jason Smith and Sergeant Swayne Pully-Raynor.
“Instruction comprised classroom-based theory with the intensity and demands of practical exercises – when the students hone their skills while kitted out with robust personal protective equipment.
“Lessons covered escalation, de-escalation and barricade drills, formations and manoeuvres, the use of less-than-lethal weapons, and dealing with petrol bombs.
“The two-week package is the latest public order course to be delivered by the Royal Bermuda Regiment to officers of police, prison and defence services overseas, with previous locations including Belize, Barbados and Guyana.
“By training multinational groups as part of Tradewinds meetings or under the Caribbean’s Regional Security System banner, consistency of standards can be achieved across the organisations’ partner nations.
“Sergeant Adelina Hospedales, a lead public order instructor with the TTPS who is serving as liaison during the course, says students have been excited by the programme, which started on April 7 and concluded on Friday, April 18.”
She explains: “It has broadened our scope in terms of the options – new techniques – that are now available to us. Of course, there are techniques that we will maintain but there are others that have been taught that are more realistic. We see that we can now better manage our human resources when we deploy our officers.”
The spokesperson said, “The TTPS public order unit is tasked when major events take place and is the only body in Trinidad and Tobago mandated to manage large crowds and protests.”
Sgt Hospedales adds: “One of the ideas behind Tradewinds is to train officers of the member nations to operate in unison, so that we can provide sufficient support if required. For instance, if we had to go to Barbados for whatever reason to offer support and our public order team had to be deployed, the techniques would be standard in relation to what they practise over there.
“That is a huge benefit from this training.”
She says: “On behalf of the Government of Trinidad and Tobago, we truly appreciate this opportunity for our officers to be trained in new techniques of crowd control. We look forward to future collaborations.”
