Eleven take part in high surf personal watercraft rescue course

It’s a course designed for police officers who work in areas with open water, rivers, and swimming pools. 

Many officers lack essential water skills, which can be critical for safety. The training covered various topics, including water safety, boat information, navigation rules, water survival techniques, and personal watercraft handling. 

It emphasizes that law enforcement must recognize that their responsibilities extend to water environments.

It's training like this that is made possible by the Governor, Lt. Governor, Guam Police Department, and Guam Visitors Bureau and  with the commitment from the park police that is helping build visibility in the Tumon area,  ensuring residents and visitors alike feel safe and secure, especially in the waters.

The GPD’s Special Enforcement Amphibious Section offered a week long High Surf Personal Watercraft Rescue course to some of its fellow officers and park police and to close out, officers  took to the waters in Piti.  

“What we're actually attempting to do is running them through drills with throttle, tandem runs with an operator and rescuer,” said Assistant Instructor, Officer  John E. San Nicolas.

“We're providing different scenarios especially with real- world situations and dealing with a victim being unconscious or conscious....and providing that service along with our other agencies like Guam Fire Department, we can work all together as a team and be on the same sheet of music,” added San Nicolas.

The bottom line?  Go out, save somebody and come back to shore safely.

GPD Sgt. Chris Champion jumped at the chance to take the course.

“It gives us a better option, more people experienced on how to operate these machines and augment beach patrol and keep our visitors safe and hopefully help other agencies and any tasks they may need assistance with,” said Champion. 

Park Police Officer Mike Palacios shared the same sentiment.

“We got to work with officers with the Guam Police Department, beach patrol, working together, it enhances our skills, it's another tool to put in our toolbox so in the event of any type of emergency, we can be called upon,” said Palacios.