Oct. 19, 2007 — Sirens wailed and blue lights flashed as police raced around the parking lot of the Geo-Net ethanol plant in St. Croix’s Renaissance Park Friday. All was well with the plant, though: Cadets in this year’s class of police recruits on St. Croix were driving police cars and using their sirens and lights for the first time.
Nineteen cadets, young V.I. men and women, have embarked on an intensive 20-week law-enforcement training program. Some are destined to become police officers; others will be enforcement officers for Health, the Fire Services or the Bureau of Corrections. They are being trained in V.I. law, police ethics, interrogation techniques, traffic-stop procedures, first-responder medical care, weapons use and a good deal more.
Individual classes are being taught by senior officers and experts from all over the country. Many of the instructors are National Guardsmen from St. Petersburg College, trainers for the federally sponsored Multi-Jurisdictional Counter-Drug Task Force.
The academy is a quasi-military experience, with physical training such as running and calisthenics and discipline within the chain of command. Infractions are punished with push-ups.
With them for their entire training are four senior officers, called cadres, who train and work to instill the spirit and ethos of the Police Department into their charges.
The cadet’s basic vehicle training takes 16 hours over two days.
Split into pairs, the cadets literally raced to be first on the cone-lined track.
"For most of the recruits, it’s the first time they’ve operated emergency equipment, so they are all excited," said cadre Gleston McIntosh.
Vehicle instructor Gregory May said every chance to increase comfort and familiarity with the police vehicle was valuable.
"There is no room for error once they hit the road for real," he said. "If they make a mistake here, it’s OK."
According to May, the course was designed to increase officer’s comfort level and confidence operating the vehicle under pressure. The lights and sirens — combined with the adrenaline of either a chase or an emergency — create a lot of distractions, he said, so simple familiarity and comfort with the vehicle is important.
"As an officer, as you are driving, you are mentally preparing for the situation you are entering," he said. "You play ‘what if’ games. That is what is going on in their minds. After a car chase is over, they still have a lot to do. If there is a crash or if not, they still have to go to the scene and address the situation, which may include dealing with serious injuries and possibly conflict."
McIntosh agreed.
"This helps us really teach them the safest, most effective way to get to the scene, where there may be pedestrians in the road or vehicles in the road," he said. "It definitely adds confidence in terms of their driving skills."
There were no smoking tires — no sudden 360-degree turns at 80 miles an hour. The course was less glamorous but more pragmatic than that. Mostly the cadets took turns driving a slalom course and doing three-point turns around orange cones, while turning their sirens and lights on and off. It is plain and simply learning to use a police car. After this, they take it up a notch, doing the course in reverse, using mirrors and not using brakes. Instilling comfort and confidence with the vehicle are major parts of the objective, May said.
The Police Department appreciates the generosity of Geo-Net and Renaissance in letting them use the lot, he said.
"The company was gracious enough to vacate the lot, having their employees park elsewhere today," he said. "This is a good spot because it is wide open, and it’s not too distracting. We’ve used school lots in the past, but it tends to disrupt the students, who want to see what is going on."
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