Belfast under the microscope

The BTEC National Certificate Public Services (uniformed) year 1 students took an investigative journey to Belfast recently.

Whilst there we went on an open top bus tour of the city.

We travelled along the Shankill Road in West Belfast. Throughout the city there are murals depicting local para-military groups such as the UVF, UDA and UFF. Our guide explained some of the intricacies of this delicate situation.

We passed the Belfast Peace Line or Peace Wall, and drove through the Peace Gates in Townsend Street, a physical barrier for vehicles separating the Shankill Road and Falls Road. Staying in West Belfast, we drove along the predominantly Irish Republican or Catholic Falls Road. Here we saw murals showing allegiance with other groups from around the world. We also passed the Sinn Fein Headquarters and the famous Bobby Sands mural at Sevastapol Street.

On the second day we were picked up by police minibuses and driven to the PSNI training centre (Police Service of Northern Ireland) Lisnasharragh complex where we were met by Chief Inspector Kevin Smith (Head of combined operational training). Scones, tea and coffee were laid on and we started our day at police training college.

Chief Inspector Arthur Davidson facilitated an informative session on operational emergency planning which included topics such as the roles of the police, ambulance, fire services and local authorities in major incident emergency planning.

Arthur explained the bronze operational, silver tactical and gold strategic chain of command. Arthur also focused on the importance of teamwork in emergency planning and interagency cooperation.

He gave practical examples of joint emergency planning, training and exercising within the Northern Ireland public services. Arthur also focused on the challenges of emergency planning and focused on the Whiterock 2005 public disorder and the Omagh bombing as real life examples.

We had a delicious lunch buffet courtesy of the PSNI and in the afternoon Constable Michael Hutchinson (Firearms and tactical trainer) facilitated a theoretical and practical session in which he prepared a tabletop scenario of a major incident where a lorry had Just driven into a Fridge Plant room and caused structural damage as well as breaking some pipe work to a Liquid Ammonia Storage System releasing Ammonia gas into the surrounding area.

The students were split into groups representing different uniformed and non-uniformed public services e.g. fire, police, local authorities and NHS. The students role played a major incident table top scenario where they had to cooperate, coordinate and communicate with each other as how to best contain and deal with the emergency. The exercise was well planned and delievered by Michael and Kevin and the students thoroughly enjoyed participating in it as well as covering assessment criteria for their planning for and management of major incidents unit.

We also were introduced to Tom Johnson Sergeant Press officer at the Lisnasharragh police headquarters and he explained how in an emergency incident his department works with the world's press to cover relevant stories.

We were taken back to George Best International Airport in the police minibuses after a very informative, educational and enlightening day.

The staff and students on the Public Services (uniformed) course thank all the staff at PSNI for their hospitality on a very educational and enjoyable day.