By Tim Cherry
Staff writer
Thursday, February 28, 2013

Fort Belvoir’s already high level of physical security protection continues to increase as the Directorate of Emergency Services hires and trains Department of the Army civilian gate guards, officials said.

This process started in September 2012, when DA civilians started replacing contracted personnel at Fort Belvoir’s gates. DES has gradually added DA guards to its staff as prospective civilians undergo security background checks and demonstrate competency in areas such as force protection, access control and hazardous materials control. Supervisory Police Capt. Amber Flores said DES is still filling positions and hopes to reach full strength in April.

“Unfortunately it’s not as easy as just bringing somebody on board, because they have to meet special requirements … there’s definitely a process to it and it takes a good 60 to 100 days to get somebody on board,” Flores said. “I think that, for Fort Belvoir, the consistency of force protection will go up once we’re full strength.”

The contracted guard service was instituted after 9/11 because of overall heightened security requirements and due to a lack of military personnel available to man the gates. More recently, due to fiscal concerns, the position was elevated to DA security guards.

Flores said the DA security guards perform the same duties as the contracted personnel. A big difference is Belvoir DES now assumes direct control over the guards. In the past, DES had to work through supervisors of the contracted personnel to handle work performance issues and other problems.

“Now we have direct control over them to ensure that our policies and procedures are followed correctly,” Flores said. “We can make improvements more quickly … it’s also a little bit easier to ensure they’re receiving proper training.”

The Joint Training Academy is another key difference. The Directorates of Emergency Services from Fort Belvoir, Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Va., Fort Meade, Md., and the Arlington Hall National Guard Bureau, Va., teamed up to create this program which saves the participating installations costs in training gate guards. The Joint Training Academy is the alternative to sending trainees to the nine-week military police course at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo.

Each partnering installation provides resources within their Judge Advocate General Office, medical departments and police forces to provide incoming guards training.

Guards receive instruction on normal security guard processes like handling visitors and how to search vehicles. Additionally, they learn how to react to an active shooter and how to recognize and respond to an improvised explosive device. They also receive training on traffic control, securing evidence, defensive tactics, weapons and first-aid. The academy training lasts three weeks and then the DA civilian guards spend 40 hours in field training before they acquire gate guard certification.

“We’re getting people from all walks of life,” said Jeff Nesmyer DES Physical Security chief. “We have a very broad training base that we use to make sure they’re getting the best training.”

Along with saving money, the joint training equips guards in the Military District of Washington with the same skills. This means they can be used at other installations if needed or even assume the role of a police officer, Nesmyer said.

“We’re able to pool our resources together and train everybody that needs to be trained,” Nesmyer said. “If we need to support one of the other installations with guards for some emergency, they know our people are trained to the same standard as their units.”