As the Surrey Police Service gets ready for deployment next month, the Now-Leader went on a tour through the department’s training facility and watched demonstrations by officers on different tactics used for arrests.
Staff Sgt. Steve Maglio said the floor the department is using was “completely vacant,” so the Surrey Police Service has moved in and made the space its training facility “for the time being.”
Maglio, who has been teaching in tactics and firearms since 2006, said the facility is currently used for a four-week “onboarding course” for officers
“That’s for our exempt officers (already current officers) that we’re currently hiring that are going to be deployed.”
The facility includes “mobile police training structures,” Maglio said, which are standalone, modular structures that can be laid out in any kind of configuration.
“It is basically up to our imagination as to what configuration we want or need and it’s based on our training needs,” he added.
The facility, which is located in the Surrey Operations Centre, also has space for learning the Gracie Survival Tactics (GST), which Const. Christiaan Allaart said it’s a “use-of-force model based on Brazilian jiu-jitsu.”
Allaart said he’s been teaching Brazilian jiu-jitsu for 13 years and it uses “leverage-based techniques that reduce the need for hard, physical contact, such as strikes.”
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“At SPS, we’re looking to have the most comprehensive GST program in the country.”
According to the SPS, its first class of officers graduated from the comprehensive training program on Oct. 21. The second group began training on Oct. 18.
“Although these are all experienced police officers, SPS believes it is important to provide its officers with updated operational skills training and information on Surrey’s communities and public safety concerns, prior to responding to calls for service,” reads an SPS release.
lauren.collins@surreynowleader.com
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