Park Police Reserves Academy kicks-off
Monday marked Day One of the first-ever Park Police Reserves Academy. The 8-week program will take the ten reservists through various training to include officer survival and judicious use of deadly force. Here's a recap of the first week of the academy and how the skills and techniques they acquire will help them fulfill the mission of the Park Police.
Wanting to take part in helping keep our island parks and streets safe, ten men and women have signed up for the program. "There's a lot of good people out there who want to contribute to the safety and security of our island," said Colonel Joey Terlaje.
The ten are no strangers to public safety as all of them are from other law enforcement agencies to include: Dept. Of Youth Affairs, Airport Police, And Dept. Of Military Affairs. Terlaje explains what the reservists can expect over the course of the 8-weeks, saying, "They are going to be learning very basic police tactics, the first week will be basic officer survival. the second week will be judicious use of deadly force, then onto basic firearms, training, and police report writing and on the job training."
Along with Terlaje, reservists are gaining a wealth of knowledge from experienced, trained, and well-respected individuals from the law enforcement community- retired chiefs James Marquez and Paul Suba and ret. Maj. Dave Sablan from the Guam Police Department.
The first week of the academy, reservists learned everything from handcuffing techniques.
And closed out their week with felony/high-risk pull-over practicals.
The intent of this reserve academy is to augment regular Park Police officers. And Terlaje says that upon graduation, noting, "They will be category one POST certified officers. they are going to be able to entertain complaints and make arrests, give citations and patrol the streets- making it safe for everybody."