Training aid

Vista Panels has supplied the Police Service of Northern Ireland with 50 of its door blanks for access training.

The Northern Ireland Police College will train their staff on how best to tackle the GRP entrance slabs with a variety of cutting tools. Like all police forces across the UK, the PSNI on occasion need to gain quick entry into properties and the high-security make up of GRP composite doors can be a formidable and time-consuming barrier.

Ian Smith, sales and marketing manager at Vista, said: “We are always happy to help the police service as we understand the importance of them being able to gain access to properties as part of their duties. While we design the doors to be of the highest security, the police have at their disposal some specialist hardware that will allow their officers to get into the property.

“It’s a real testament to the strength of composite doors that they are having to train with the materials in order to do this. GRP composite doors with high-security multi-point locks have created a fresh challenge for police forces as timber doors were much easier to get through. It is only right and forward-thinking that they would come directly to the manufacturer to carry out their own tests on how best to gain access and either save lives or tackle criminals.”

In 2013, Vista supplied Greater Manchester Police’s access training facility with a number of full door sets to practise their own methods of gaining entry. The Manchester-based training centre found the experience helpful and were so impressed with the door sets that some of their officers even had them fitted on their own properties.