Police officers trained to keep peace in times of trouble

Maintaining public order during demonstration in major cities is important for peace and harmony, says Commissioner of Police Operations Jim Andrews.
He made the comments during the closing of the fourth special services division mobile squad training on public order management last week at the McGregor Police Barracks Training Centre.
Thirty-five officers, including a woman from Mobile Squad One, took part in the training in preparation for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in November.
“These are training that we haven’t done for a very long time and it is a new level of training.” Andrews said.
“They have attended the training and have proved that they can do it.
“This is training on how to maintain public disorder and demonstration so they will be called upon to attend to issues like that to ensure that no one is hurt or there’s mass distraction.
“It is important for peace and harmony.”
Andrews said as part of the equal opportunity policy emphasised by the commissioner, more women were involved in heavy-duty work and would continue to be so.
Special Services Division director Jim Namora, in sharing similar thoughts, said the focus was on Apec but they were also preparing the officers for duties after Apec.
“This will benefit us in the long run,” he said.
Meanwhile, 28 members of the SSD mobile squad flown in from outside centres, have also completed training on close protection work for Apec duties
Namora urged then to maintain discipline as they would be working alongside world leaders.