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Police Training

Chris Jones recounts his experience of a trip to the Merseyside Police training centre in St Helens

Chris Jones recounts his experience of a trip to the Merseyside Police training centre in St Helens

Police training centre, St Helen's, Merseyside.

Wearing a police riot helmetWe (all 16 of us) travelled to the centre in the mosslands school minibus, upon arrival we were taken into the reception and signed in.

We walked up to the canteen and waited for our tour guide, who arrived shortly after.

The first room we saw was the IT room, which is where the new officers learn tactics and learn the law.

We then entered the arena and witnessed a small portion of public order training, which was really impressive. A few of us took a step back when the officers charged at us!

After 20 minutes or so in the arena, we walked round to the self-defence room, which had training dummies on the walls and padded flooring; this was for when officers learn to fight in open hand combat.

Riot shields used to create a protective barrierThe tour guide was kind enough to get the riot gear out for us, and let us use some of the equipment!

Cameron Hine put the full riot suit on, and I used the police baton!

We spent quite a while in there, then we went back to the canteen for lunch. After lunch we went down into the arena and saw all the areas they train in, we saw buildings designed for,

  • Entry (door ramming)
  • Drug search
  • Rope tactics
  • Evacuation
  • Public order (angry man armed with a baseball bat)
  • Working in the custody suit
  • Removing people from arena seating

Riot police running through petrol bomb fireThen it came to the final part of the day, the petrol bomb training. We were all excited about this because we`d be looking forward to it all day.

It was brilliant; when the petrol bombs smashed we got the blast of heat and smoke! The officers looked very professional and there were no “hiccups”. The day made me and a few others even more determined to become officers. All in all it was an excellent day.