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Special enforcement team sharpens skills
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Posted on Mar 21 2001
Men in ski masks and clad in dark clothes descending from the 16th floor of a hotel building would be enough reason for someone to scamper to the nearest phone booth and call the police.
But what if the perpetrators are the police themselves.
No. The Department of Public Safety has not suddenly abandoned its sworn duty to serve and protect citizens from rogue elements of the community. They were just in training. More specifically, in rappel training.
Yesterday the DPS’s crack 16-member Tactical Response Enforcement Team conducted its regular rappel exercises at the Diamond Hotel in Susupe.
“What we’re doing right now is part of our annual training regimen,” TRET team leader Lt. Pete Guerrero said. “No man has wings, so what we do is descend from floors using ropes in what is called as rappelling.”
The rappel training was conducted to prepare the group for situations were traditional means of arrest may not be applicable. “Sometimes when a target is heavily fortified there is no other option but to enter through the balcony,” Lt. Guerrero noted.
He also said police may sometimes use rappelling troops to divert attention away from the main door where the main police force would be waiting to storm the criminal’s lair.
“It’s easy to man a door and wait for the guys to come in and start shooting at them, but if we pick two to three entry points, we have a better chance of overcoming a fortified position,” Lt. Guerrero added.
The rappel training is meant to season TRET operatives when the time comes that they need to extricate or arrest someone through the backdoor by means of rappelling.
According to the team leader, “We now that occasions like these don’t happen everyday, but when it does arise everyone of us should be prepared. If we don’t know the technique then someone is bound to get hurt.”
Lt. Guerrero said he believes in 100 percent preparation for a successful mission. The DPS’s TRET crew has 15 men currently undergoing training.
The 16-member TRET is composed of police officers derived from various divisions under the Department of Public Safety. They are capable of administering high-risk arrest warrants, specially of crooks who have defected from the police service.
