Annual police drill tests special units' preparedness

Annual police drill test

By BEN HARTMAN
yassam practicing 248.88 (photo credit: Ben Hartman)
yassam practicing 248.88
(photo credit: Ben Hartman)
Israel Police commandos are holding their yearly operational readiness drills this week, which includes daily exercises and simulations culminating with the "Elite Units fitness day," a day-long fitness competition where the top police and Border Police units battle it out for bragging rights. The exercises, held at the paintball course at Moshav Beit Berl, are used to rate the performance of different commando units against each other, as well as to see how officers work individually and as a team. During Wednesday's drills, officers from the elite Yamam and Yasam units carried out mock raids on an "Arab village" set up on the paintball course. With speakers playing the sounds of screaming civilians and barking dogs, and flash grenades going off intermittently, the soldiers battled door-to-door against "terrorists" holding rubber hostages on the rooftops of the village. With instructors looking on and shouting encouragement, the officers tore again and again through the course, as reporters wearing protective masks took pictures and filmed the raids from a catwalk above. Instructors from the moshav's school of tactical warfare ducked behind the police during the raids with camcorders in hand, filming their technique and looking for weaknesses. After the raids ended, the instructors retired to viewing rooms to pore over the film and look for areas needing improvement. The "specialized training facility for defense and security forces" where the drills were held hosts similar exercises throughout the year for elite IDF units and police alike. An American-Israeli police volunteer, Elke Kagan, the head of Global Information for the Israel Police Special Forces Dept., said that whenever possible police special units from the United States and elsewhere can observe the Israeli forces train in exercises such as Wednesday's.