Police officers from as far away as Guam and the Cayman Islands came to South Florida last week to receive marine patrol training from a company teaching on-the-water policing for almost 30 years.

Tactical Advantage Consultants was formed by retired Florida Marine Patrol officers Capt. Bob Knight and Maj. Mike Tucker after the FMP stopped providing marine law enforcement training to other agencies in the mid-1980s. The FMP merged with other state agencies in 1999 to become the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Agencies send their men and women to TAC because they can learn things not taught in most local police academies. As more agencies are patrolling their rivers, lakes, bays and oceans, their people aren’t necessarily receiving the proper training.

Knight said often officers are assigned water duty because they have driven boats before.

The company provides courses like advanced boating firearms training, tactical marine procedures, high-risk boarding, advanced medical procedures and port protection.

The week-long training course is on Biscayne Bay, where officers play out several scenarios cops patrolling the water may encounter. The company’s reputation has garnered international attention. Chinese security personnel hired TAC last year to train some of their employees.

Participants this year were from the Guam Police Department, Guam Customs, the Cayman Islands Police Department, Cayman Islands Customs, Cayman Island Port Authority, the Golden Beach Police Department, the Riviera Beach Police Department, the Martin County Sheriff’s Office, the Cape Coral Police Department, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the City of Miami Police Department.

Knight said the Guam participants found their training so valuable that they invited TAC to come to Pacific Ocean, U.S. territory next year.

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