Courtesy Photo | From left, Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall Police Watch Commander Lt. Troy Dennison...... read more read more
JBM-HH police and security guards are the first line of defense at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, and each has a story that would make an ambitious crime beat reporter’s job easy.
In addition to the 10,000 vehicles that enter JBM-HH on a daily basis, there’s continual security and policing the joint base’s 100-plus officers and security guards must oversee daily, according to JBM-HH Police Watch Commander Lt. Troy Dennison.
Although JBM-HH is a relatively small base geographically, it’s not without crime or security risks, according to Dennison. That means the officers and guards must maintain their law enforcement skills regularly. In fact, they are required to undergo training every six months to ensure they are on top of their game and ready for anything and everything on the joint base.
In short, the joint base’s staff of law enforcement and security professionals are far more “than just an ID checker,” said Dennison.
“We deal with everything from weapons to drugs,” agreed JBM-HH security guard James Perry, who has eight years of providing security services under his belt.
“We’ve had everything on this base,” added Dennison. “We’ve had every gamut of crime.”
Beyond basic training to use the tactical baton, handcuffs and weaponry, including the M9 9mm pistol and shotguns, semi-annual, in-service training ensures these men and women are current in all areas of force protection: how to operate as a quick reaction force in the event of an active shooter, weapons retention, when to use pepper spray, unarmed self-defense as well as when and how to use deadly force.
“If they don’t know how to do what they’re supposed to do, they can hurt themselves and hurt the person that they have to deal with,” said Dennison.
On this particular training day, Dennison and his cohort of lead trainers are as likeable as drill instructors: They’re tough and quick to point out mistakes during training drills.
“For each one you get wrong, 10 push-ups,” Dennison barks.
Other lead instructors join in. A trainee, tasked to control a non-compliant belligerent, improperly applies pressure to the belligerent’s mandibular angle. This pressure point is located below the ear and along the lower jawbone. Pressure to the point causes considerable pain and can be used to forcibly restrain a person.
Trainees like JBM-HH security guard Aaron Mason know how dangerous—and seriously damaging—the technique can be when it’s not applied properly. But he also knows how effective the technique is to subdue someone, he said.
“Rain, sleet, snow, humidity, there’s always threats,” Mason said. “You take the good with the good, and you take the bad with the bad.”
To do this job, trainees unanimously agree it takes guts and heart.
“You have to be a very thick-skinned person,” Dennison said, emphasizing the type of temperament that makes a good fit for service as a law enforcement professional on JBM-HH.
Thick skins, both mentally and physically, leave his team of officers and guards both actively engaged in recruitment for new employees, while also enabling the type of tough police training needed to keep the force of officers and guards up to standards.
After all, those standards are what keeps the base secure and its population protected. To that end, training helps keep JBM-HH’s police and guard force the “professional force” that it is, according to Dennison.
| Date Taken: | 10.27.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 11.12.2015 17:32 |
| Story ID: | 181829 |
| Location: | JOINT BASE MYER-HENDERSON HALL, VIRGINIA, US |
| Web Views: | 112 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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