CNMI Office of Homeland Security training coordinator Patricio F. Tudela said two of the police officers were from Rota, two from Tinian and the rest were from Saipan.
“Our officers who have undergone the training are now better equipped to combat threats of terrorism, shooting rampages and other incidents,” Tudela said.
“We hope incidents like these don’t happen to us here, but we cannot wait for something to happen before we prepare our first responders on what to do,” Tudela said.
He said the police officers learned a lot from training directors Dennis O’Connor of the Government Training Institute, and John Pompi and Travis Peterson from Idaho State University.
Tudela said the training is very important for police officers but they have to limit the number of participants.
He said the training cost a lot but it was more practical to bring over the instructors from the states than to send a handful of officers to the training institute.
O’Connor earlier said the training was a terrorism-related course where the police officers as first responders would learn how to enter and move down hallways in buildings while shooting their weapons.
The officers also learned tactics and techniques in dealing with active shooter and terrorist incidents.
Tudela said a new batch of 30 police officers will undergo basic SWAT training beginning today until Sunday next week.
This is the second training in two weeks, he adeed.
Tudela said the participants will be from the DPS Tactical Response Enforcement Team, ports police and the Correctional Emergency Response Team from the corrections department.
