RCMP training videos that will be watched across Canada were made in Chilliwack by the multi-media department of the Pacific Regional Training Centre.
“The multi-media department at PRTC is recognized as one of the best in the country for doing this kind of work,” RCMP Cpl. Steve Hiscoe said in a telephone interview from Ottawa, where he is finishing post-production work on the training videos.
Last month, actors and a production crew hired by the multi-media department filmed seven different training scenarios in locations around Chilliwack and in Cultus Lake.
Leann Parker, PRTC multi-media production manager, said the department staff of three do two national projects every year, but many more smaller projects that are used for training or public communications, like web-casting and crime-scene re-enactments.
Creativity is a key ingredient in the success of the department, Parker agreed, finding the right actors, the right production crew and the right locations for filming.
Re-enacting the disappearance of 10-year-old Joanne Pedersen 25 years ago, for instance, the convenience store where she was last seen no longer exists.
“We don’t have the big dollars,” Parker said. “We do what we can.”
The department also maintains the state-of-the-art media equipment in the PRTC classrooms.
Hiscoe said the training videos help show officers how to assess the risk they may encounter in different situations on the job.
He said the videos don’t show trainees how to respond to those situations, but to analyze the actions taken by the officers in the video and to judge whether correct decisions were made.
The seven scenarios, filmed in both English and French, show officers using different levels of force: baton, spray, pistol and communication to deal with situations like a protester at a VIP visit, like officers at a child apprehension confronted by the parents, like a robbery in progress and an impaired driver resisting arrest.
“Each video has a special objective and teaching point to it,” Hiscoe said.
The training videos are updated every two or three years as use-of-force issues emerge like the use of Tasers.
rfreeman@theprogress.com
