The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

4- PORT PERRY STAR - Tuesday, December 30, 1997 "Scugog's Community Newspaper of Choice" Officers in training Durham's Police Learning Centre 1S gaining attention nation-wide By Rik Davie Port Perry Star A police officer should never stop learning. That was the idea behind the found- ing of the Durham Regional Police Learning Centre, which began opera- tion in December of 1993. Then Chief Trevor McCagherty believed that Durham officers would benefit from a centre where they could brush up on the skills they learned at police college. At the same time they could be brought up to date with the latest policing methods, as well as the newest changes to the court system, laws of evidence and all things pertain- ing to police work. Chief McCagherty, along with Durham College President Gary Polonsky and oth- ers interested in improving polic- ing in the region, decided to base the centre at the Oshawa campus of Durham College. The learning centre has grown by leaps and bounds; it is now an every day occurrence to see officers in uniform walking the halls with books under arm, among the regular students of the college. Officers from Durham and sev- eral outlying and smaller forces make use of college classrooms to attend seminars on all aspects of policing. Staff Sgt. David Kimmerly, current head of the learning centre, says the variety of topics for officers to brush up on is wide. "We just completed a two-day semi- nar on sexual assault awareness," he said in an interview. "The officers are instructed by experts in how to deal with traumatized victims of sexual assault; how to care for their needs as 'What we teach helps our officers do a better job for the public, and gets them home safely" instantly obey instructions on safety well as gather evidence and investigate such crimes." Sgt. Kimmerly also feels that the courses help keep the cops' investigative skills honed to a finer edge. "The laws pertaining to the gathering of evidence and search and seizure rules change from time to time, and we can give courses that keep our officers abreast of the most current changes to the Criminal Code," he said. "We have instructors come in from the Police College at Aylmer, Ontario to teach, or refresh on certain things. "It's a lot cheaper to bring an instruc- tor in to teach a class than to send a class to Aylmer for a week." Smaller police forces, such as Cobourg's, make use of the facility to keep their own members as up to date as the big city departments. It's a luxury they might not be able to afford if the centre were not here. One of the main functions of the cen- tre now 1s to give Durham officers a biannual refresher course in the least used of all police tools: Deadly force. All officers are expected to take and pass a firearms course that includes servicing of their guns, and use of the weapon in a field situation. It includes clearing the gun of jams, safe use of firearms, and qualifying on the target range located just east of the college campus. Despite a recent freak accident in which a pistol discharged into the cement floor while the officer attempted to holster it, slightly wounding several officers on the range, safety is stressed to the highest degree on the range. Even lowly reporters must wear bullet- proof vests, eye and ear protection, and 4 It's now commonplace to see uniformed officers strolling the halls of Durham College's Oshawa campus, books under their arms, as they attend for upgrading and training the the Police Learning Centre. The centre is attended by officers from forces outside Durham, as well. § Sh BRN = Officers undergo rigorous training at the Learning Centre in Oshawa. Instructors want to be sure they can safely and accurately use their firearms before they're allowed to qualify. from the range officers, who are expert in the safety, care and use of the stan- dard sidearm used by Durham Region: the .40 caliber, 15-shot Glock automatic pistol. On the range, officers must qualify with the weapon standing and in combat positions. Nobody leaves the range until the instructors are satisfied they can use the gun safely, and with accu- racy. The next instructors the refresher course students meet are the "hand-to- hand" teachers. Led by Constable Tony Poole, they instruct the officers in how to subdue a suspect using the minimum amount of physical violence. Special holds and handcuffing methods are discussed. But before the officers take to the mats in the training room at the college, they discuss something Const. Poole considers more important. "We teach the officers how to stop a situation before it escalates to violence. How to tell when force should be applied and more importantly, when it's not necessary." The Durham Police Learning centre has fast gained national attention. Already, similar centres are being set up in Western Canada, and in the Ottawa area. The idea of the centre was to insure that all officers, regardless of their daily duties, were trained and kept at the same high standards of recent grad- uates of the police college. Const. Poole feels they meet that challenge. "Our job is to make sure our officers can protect both themselves and the public," he said. "All of us want to go home after work. What we teach helps our officers do a better job for the public, and gets them home safely." The Star's Rik Davie receives instruc- tion before trying his skills on the fir- ing range. | \ i -- as