Coast Guard's New Training System
posted 11/05/09
6:05 pm
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Charleston, SC -
This week, it’s a show of combined force out on Charleston’s waterways.
The Coast Guard, Sheriff’s Office, and several police departments are taking part in a training program.
Thursday they learned how to respond in a uniform way when a boat doesn’t stop for authorities.
“A pursuit ensues and this is ensuring that they do it in a safe and coordinated way and ultimately stop the person,” said Mark DuPont, Chief Intelligence and Domestic Security Officer.
It's pretty frequent that the Coast Guard needs help from police and sheriff's officers, so the federal government developed a uniformed response that all of the agencies can use.
“If you had a Coast Guard boat out here and a sheriff’s boat out here, this training ensures that they don’t bang into each other. No matter what the other boat does, they can react appropriately,” said DuPont.
The system they're using is brand new. Charleston was selected as the first city to try it out because of the harbor and the good working relationships between all of the agencies.
The training goes far beyond the Charleston harbor. The goal is to get every coastal city in the country on the same system so that everyone would know how to use it in the event of a large scale emergency.
“We can ensure through this training that they’ll all get there and be able to interface with the Coast Guard immediately. They’ll know the tactics, they’ll know the definitions and they’ll literally be able to get there and get out on the water and start performing the mission,” said DuPont.
The Coast Guard can also use this training to protect large cargo ships and cruise ships coming in and out of the harbor.
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