| Regional Training Vehicle Fact Sheet |
 |
|
 |
|
|
DPSST FACT SHEET - Regional training program
DPSST’s mission is to promote excellence in public safety through the development of professional standards and the delivery of quality training. DPSST provides mandatory basic and leadership training for Oregon’s public safety professionals at its training academy in Monmouth. The agency also has an extensive regional training program serving public safety officers from communities throughout Oregon.
Although DPSST was established in 1961 as the Board on Police Standards and Training, the agency’s scope of responsibilities has grown significantly since that time. We currently serve over 32,000 professionals including law enforcement, corrections, parole and probation officers; fire service professionals; public safety telecommunicators and emergency medical dispatchers; private security providers; and polygraph technicians. The primary revenue source for DPSST is the Criminal Fines and Assessments Account.
The Board directed DPSST several years ago to develop a strategy and request legislative authority for a phased expansion of its regional training program, in response to many requests by local public safety agencies. DPSST’s regional training division provides advanced, specialized and maintenance training to public safety officers around the state. Regional training encompasses both our criminal justice and fire training programs.
The training provided or facilitated by our regional training coordinators is often in high-risk and high-liability subjects that require multiple instructors, such as:
· Emergency vehicle operations.
· Firearms.
· Defensive tactics.
· Flammable Liquids and Gas (FLAG) fire suppression.
As we began acquiring regional training trailers and equipment, we ran through a number of actual exercises that helped us determine our vehicle needs. Options we explored included renting vehicles from a commercial rental firm and converting some of our existing vehicles to tow the equipment trailers. These efforts led to our realization that our safest and most cost-effective plan was to rent multi-purpose vehicles from the Department of Administrative Services (DAS).
The vehicles would have to meet a number of criteria:
· They would have to be able to safely pull our variety of trailers, the heaviest of which is nearly 10,000 pounds when loaded.
· To maximize their use they would need the capacity to carry a large variety of training materials and equipment for classroom and skills courses when used without the trailers.
· They would have to be able to work in all of Oregon's terrain and weather, since we do training statewide during all seasons.
· They would need to be easily maintained by staff – for example, when coming in from fire suppression training they should be able to be hosed out and cleaned.
· They would need the storage capacity to allow instructors to be on the road for as long as a month before being re-supplied from our Monmouth/Salem offices.
· They should have the ability to carry multiple instructors and their personal gear when training is being provided in a regional setting.
· They would need to have the ability to keep sensitive equipment such as firearms, simunitions guns, Range 2000 (mobile computerized firearms use-of-force decision-making simulator), and other resources in a climate controlled and secure environment.
We worked with DAS Fleet Administration to acquire six vehicles. Each year DAS works with other state agencies to develop categories of vehicle requirements that are released for competitive bid. In the last bid cycle, the Ford Excursion was the low bid vehicle in the “carry-all” category by more than $1,000 and thus was the only vehicle available in the category that would meet our towing, security, and capacity needs. The features with which our vehicles are equipped were included in the vehicle bid pricing as standard equipment.
The use of vehicles and equipment trailers allows us to deliver needed training in a way that minimizes the time local officers are away from their agencies, minimizes the expenses to those agencies, and maximizes the use of specialized training equipment. The vehicles and equipment trailers (the heaviest trailer is nearly 10,000 lbs. when loaded) allow our instructors to arrive at locations all over the state, at all times of the year, fully prepared to deliver critical training to public safety officers in the local area.
Regional training equipment includes two Flammable Liquids and Gases (FLAG) trailers for specialized fire training, as well as trailers and equipment for instruction in defensive tactics, skid cars and trailers for emergency vehicle operations training, and trailers and equipment for firearms training and Oregon Physical Abilities Training and Testing (OR-PAT). Much of the equipment is costly and sensitive, needing to be transported with care and protected from weather conditions and extreme temperature fluctuations. Specialized public safety training equipment also requires a level of security not possible in the back of a pickup.
Our criminal justice regional training unit works from field offices located in Bend, Central Point, Eugene, Pendleton, Salem, and at the metro office in Washington County. The fire service training unit works from regional offices located in Central Point, La Pine, Pendleton and Salem.
So far in 2002 our criminal justice regional coordinators have taught or facilitated multiple skills courses in all areas of the state, including: Ashland, Umatilla County, Pendleton, Hermiston, Josephine County, Portland, Tillamook, Polk County, Washington County, Lane County, Gold Beach and Bend. Courses have included: confrontational simulation, defensive tactics, a variety of firearms courses, firearms instructor development, emergency vehicle operations (basic, refresher, and instructor development), cell extraction, and search and seizure.
So far in 2002, our regional fire coordinators have provided Flammable Liquids and Gases (FLAG) training to over 1,000 full-time and volunteer firefighters all over the state, including Bend, Pendleton, the Dalles, Boring, Oakridge, Lyons, Hood River, Redmond, Medford, Coos Bay, and the Portland metro area. They will spend six weeks in late summer delivering this training in eastern Oregon.
By using vehicles, equipment and trailers to deliver training to all regions of the state at all seasons of the year, we are able to maximize the use of specialized training equipment, minimize the numbers of vehicles needed to transport instructors and equipment, and save scarce time and financial resources for the local agencies whose officers attend this training to maintain and enhance their crucial skills and abilities.
|
|
| |
|
|
