There's just one final obstacle for the over a dozen involved in the first ever Park Police Reserves Academy: Active shooter and threat training.

Led by Chief Vince Naputi of the Guam Airport Police, the course is a basic introduction to close quarters battle and team formations as it relates to active shooter events.

“What the students will get is an understanding of the historical background to active shooter, they'll understand how to respond in an active shooter event whether they are a single man operator, two-man operator, three-man operator, or an entire special operations team. and so team movement, and then we also throw in stress inoculation using simulations to actually create the active shooter environment," said Naputi.

Assisting Naputi during the week were members of the Special Enforcement Tactics team to include Lt. Dean Delgado, the S.E.T. Commander, Operations Sgt. Randy Chaco and a few operators who recently graduated from the S.E.T. program.

On day one of the training, Naputi made it clear to the reservists that there would be times where he will be hard on them, but there is a purpose behind him doing so.

“We put them into a scenario where they are going force on force with the active shooter using simunitions. At times operators tend to overthink things, so we try to make it simple. We say in our S.E.T program, ‘simplicity equals confidence equals fear management.’ So we can take a team concept and make it really simple that everyone can achieve and make it easier on the response side,” he said.

Motivation to learn was high, with reservists eager to be well-rounded law enforcement officers, training until 11 p.m. on some nights with their tactical abilities improving each day.

“The more individuals we train, we're that much stronger as a whole in our law enforcement community. Right now we are training and at the end we will be 20 strong...because in an active shooter, it's not just the Guam Police Department's responsibility, it's everyone's responsibility.”

“I appreciate Col. Terlaje [Joey] for allowing us....he had that vision to bring the entire law enforcement community together because together we're stronger, being united,” Naputy said. “This is setting precedence. Moving forward, agencies can come together as a community, train together, so that when we do our response, it's expeditious, it's being done properly, and we're discussing all the issues.”

He added that the S.E.T. program, along with Airport Police, want to be proactive and have launched a campaign to provide active shooter training.

“Our hope is we teach the civilian side how to act in an active shooter environment, what they need to do. The national standard is: Run, Hide and Fight. We have a training that is starting in two weeks that allows our tenants, airport employees and then branch out to the schools, to GMH so we're moving along,”he said.

He said there is a need for such training especially after the 2022 shooting incident at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.

“Now people are fearing because there is an increase in gun sales, there is an increase in concealed carry holders and mental health issues are on the rise," he said.

The hard work has paid off. With the completion of the training, the reservists will swear in during their graduation scheduled for May 22 at the Guam Museum.