Firearms officers from the Bermuda Police Service are among those leading the charge in a major inter-regional training programme.

Eleven officers from across British Overseas Territories gathered at Montpelier House in Devonshire today to learn to become firearms instructors themselves.

The cohort, which included three Bermudians, marked the second time Bermuda hosted the course and the first time it was led primarily by Bermuda for overseas instructors.

John Brown, from the International Police Assistance Service at the Home Office, said the programme was meant to better organise OTs for times where mutual aid was needed.

He said: “In a nutshell, across the region of the Caribbean and Bermuda, all the firearms officers are trained to the same standards and the same tactics so they can all, in times of necessity, be able to conduct some kind of regional mutual aid.”

The training involved health-and-safety matters, leading classroom lessons, running ranges and leading tactical operations.

Participating police forces came from Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Montserrat and the Turks & Caicos Islands.

Today, the officers did their summative assessments that included a searching exercise and candidates instructing one another other in a mock firearms arrest.

Inspector Derrick Golding, from the BPS training department, said a need for the programme became apparent after a 2017 exercise when all the territories realised they did not hold the same standard.

He said: “This training has now put us in a space so that all the islands and all the territories can have the standardised training to work together and offer mutual aid if need be.”

Mr Golding added that three Bermudians had already gone through the programme and had been “an asset” in building Bermuda’s teaching capabilities.

He said that he was happy to see more Bermudians involved because it helped to increase the number of capable instructors on the island.

Mr Golding said: “It increases our pool of firearms instructors, so that when we deliver the training, it doesn’t put a strain on a small number of people.

“Firearms instructor training is at a higher standard, so what we’re doing is increasing our capability to instruct and to train our officers more frequently by having more instructors available to be used.”

The six-week course started in mid-September and is expected to be completed next Friday.

Graduates will receive certificates during a ceremony on October 23 before returning to their jurisdictions.