Law officers to be taught winter skills

PRIEST LAKE, Idaho – Constable Kim Bloy and two other Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers on snowmobiles were following tracks across the border into northern Idaho when their machines became bogged down in deep powder snow.

The trail became so narrow and the snow so deep that the snowmobiles had to be physically lifted to turn them around as other officers from the United States and Canada made their way to the trapped Mounties.

Communications were spotty. Two-way radios didn’t work and cellular telephone coverage was limited by weather and satellite coverage, Bloy said.

“We learned many things that day; that being unprepared for anything, anywhere is not acceptable,” Bloy said Wednesday. “We were OK physically, we had food and water. The Americans knew where we were. Our outfit knew where we were. It was just a matter of getting to us.”

Their 12-hour ordeal last Nov. 1 prompted the formation of the new law enforcement mountain operations course, a joint effort to teach survival skills to officers who routinely work the mountainous border regions.

Bloy is among a dozen federal, state, provincial and local officers from both countries who are organizing the courses, which will be offered next winter to teach officers how to safely equip themselves while chasing their quarry through the backcountry.

“We hope that by this training, officers who go through the course will be in a position to help people, rather than become victims themselves in the woods,” said U.S. Forest Service special agent Mike Bonszano, another participant who will help teach the courses.

The winter skills course, put together by a number of agencies, is the first of its kind for people who work along the borders, said U.S. Attorney Jim McDevitt of Spokane. His office prosecutes many of the federal smuggling, illegal entry and money laundering cases in Eastern Washington.

The course is being coordinated by Steve Tomson, a former Whitman County, Wash., sheriff who is McDevitt’s liaison with law enforcement agencies.

More officers are patrolling the border because of terrorism concerns, as well as a burgeoning drug trade, human trafficking and influx of illegal aliens, Tomson said.

Many of the agents who patrol the south side of the border are with the U.S. Border Patrol, an agency of the federal Department of Homeland Security. They often come from working the border with Mexico, and are unfamiliar with thick forests, deep snow and below-freezing temperatures.

“The biggest challenge is working safely in the natural environment. If not properly clothed and equipped, an officer can become a casualty quicker to hypothermia than to terrorists,” Tomson said. “Not everybody’s an outdoorsman.”

For instance, nearly every law enforcement officer has some background in basic first aid. But in the remote wilderness, officers need to know much more to save a wounded colleague’s life, Tomson said.

“There are things you would do differently in the backcountry than you would do in town,” he said. “You can’t treat them and wait for the ambulance to arrive.”

Medical training will be a large part of the classes, along with compass and map skills, avalanche safety, wilderness survival techniques and appropriate clothing and gear, Tomson said. The courses, which will be taught about twice a year, also will include anti-terrorism tactics and techniques to catch smugglers and illegal aliens moving through the vast expanses near the border.

“We have to keep our focus on the officers who have no real experience in working in this environment,” he said. “We want to teach the average patrol officer how to survive.”

The officers are part of the Okanogan Integrated Border Enforcement Team responsible for the stretch from the crest of the Cascade Range in Washington to Glacier Park in Montana. It is one of 14 such teams of Canadian and U.S. law-enforcement agencies covering the border from the Pacific to the Atlantic.

In about 75 percent of the Okanogan team’s territory, the border crosses federal forest or park land, much of it inaccessible to wheeled vehicles, Tomson said.

Horses and four-wheel vehicles don’t work where snow can pile 20 feet or more in winter, so the courses will stress traversing the backcountry on snowmobiles or even snowshoes, he said.

The costs of the sessions are being paid with federal law enforcement funds, while individual agencies pay for food, lodging and other expenses of the officers being trained.

Tomson and McDevitt said they hope Homeland Security money will be available to continue the training.

“We’ve put together a lot of people with a lot of expertise,” McDevitt said. “We can save ourselves time and trouble and the taxpayers’ money by getting people together in a partnership.”