A significant shift in the nature of terror attacks is the use of vehicles to ram into pedestrians, opening fire on crowds, and armed men engaging security personnel.
How prepared are the police to tackle such eventualities?
A group of security personnel from the city will be trained in Offensive Tactical Response (OTR), techniques for first responders to minimise blood on the streets, and also in how to take down the terrorists. Synergia Foundation, a city-based strategic think tank, has got Reuven Wertheim, an experienced Swiss security trainer.
Seventy city police inspectors, 30 railway policemen and 30 home guards, apart from 40 security men from Electronics City, will be upskilled in a series of practical workshops over the weekend.
According to Mr. Wertheim, attacks last barely 30 minutes. “The first responders today are the policemen on the street, where there is a gap in the response,” he said. And this is where OTR comes in.
It is a set of techniques, which is a combination of armed and unarmed response with the goal of staying alive, and taking down the attacker.
Tobby Simon, founder and president of Synergia Foundation, said, “OTR training will help policemen respond effectively. In an increasingly globalised theatre of terror, citizens need to be aware and police on the street trained to be first responders,” he said.
T. Suneel Kumar, Police Commissioner, said the training will be of great help. “When the local police are increasingly becoming first responders, it throws up the challenge that every last policeman in my force needs to be trained on how to respond effectively. Training for a batch of 70 men will go a long way as they will in turn train others,” he said.
