ENFORCE Security recently took its Tactical Use of Firearms for Emergency Response (TUFFER) course to the Hillcrest Park Neighbourhood Watch tactical team and the Hillcrest Park Security Alliance, a move aimed at equipping these dedicated volunteers with skills to use when on patrols to help keep themselves safe.
Enforce devised and introduced the TUFFER course early in 2015 following the almost-fatal shooting of reaction officer, Dino Moodley, in uMhlanga last year.
Enforce operations manager, Shane Thompson, said it was then decided that it was necessary to give the company’s reaction officers further skills training in order to equip them with the know-how in dangerous situations, such as when coming under fire. Thompson and Dudley Booyen, Enforce’s firearm course trainer, came up with the TUFFER course.
The course also covers house penetration, getting out of a vehicle while under fire, basic bush work and tracking, taking cover under fire and how to react in a hand-grenade attack.
“We felt that it was crucial to offer our officers these abilities and skills in order to keep both themselves and our clients safe. We then award these officers with certificates and badges signifying the completion of the course,” said Thompson.
They decided to open this course up to the Hillcrest security volunteers and neighbourhood watches to equip them with the same survival skills as these are the residents who give their time to keep their neighbourhoods safe.
“We use a paintball range in the Hillcrest area, which is made up of broken-down houses, where we teach them skills relating to how to enter a house safely. Another is in an alley where there are particular places to take cover where they are taught to move between cover while under fire. The third is a bush course in which we teach them how to look for signs that suspects have entered or been through a particular path in the bush. We also teach them how to approach a bush area and react if they come under fire,” he said.
In addition to the skills learned, the TUFFER course also gave alliance members and Enforce reaction officers the opportunity to team-build together.
Shaun Lyle, chairman of the Hillcrest Park Neighbourhood Watch, expressed his appreciation to Enforce for hosting the event.
“We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, despite the pain inflicted by paintballs travelling at 300 feet per second, and then at close range of three to 10 metres. It was a great experience and an opportunity for members to reconnect and alliance partners and reaction officers to work together, all this while building capacity and the skill sets that are becoming increasingly critical for living.”
He added, “To Dudley and Sizwe, our expert instructors, we salute you.”
