Law enforcementTampa police already training for 2012 RNC convention

In preparation for next year’s Republican National Convention in Tampa Bay Florida, nearly every local police department employee is required to attend a three-day training course.

The mandatory training is designed to teach officers how to control large crowds.

“It’s kind of a no-brainer,” explained Captain Brian Dugan who is in charge of the Tampa police department’s crowd management division. “It’s different techniques; lessons learned from other types of events from football games to political events.”

Dugan avoided speaking more specifically, but did say that the training course covers basic crowd management techniques and that roughly half of the three days are spent doing hands-on training.

“You’re always concerned you’re overtraining, but I’m not sure we can over-prepare for this,” Dugan said.

Thousands of conference attendees are expected to flood Tampa as well as large groups of protestors. The 2008 Republican convention in Minnesota drew thousands and local police were forced to arrest hundreds of protestors.

Dugan said the training can also be applied to other large events other than the convention.

“I think it’s really something we can use on a day-to-day basis, whether it’s crowd management at a crime scene or a hockey game,” he said. “We’re a town that loves to throw a parade, and we’re used to managing crowds. I think this helps us refine our techniques.”

Dugan is conducting the training far in advance of the August 2012 convention to minimize disruptions to law enforcement duties.

“The reason I set this up so early is I did not want to tax our resources out there patrolling the neighborhoods,” he said.

Training sessions began in June, extend through this month and will resume once more in November and December. The training is also offered to some members of nearby law enforcement agencies like the Hillsborough County Sherriff’s office.

The course is instructed by DHS, which is also paying for it.