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July 2008

7/23/2008 5:59 PM
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 85

July 2008

Consider the situation that faced Mike Lessman and his fellow members of the Reno SWAT team on Jly 15, 1999. An angry, violent man is holding his girlfriend at knife point, and he has tried to burn down the house. Think about what you would do as a first responder to this call and as a SWAT officer making a dynamic entry into the home. Now ask yourself the following questinos:

On domestics, do you always make a point of checking on the welfare of others at the house? What would you do if you received such a call and were denied entry? At what point would you feel compelled to do something?

Do you work SWAT as a collateral responsibility to your patrol obligations? How do you feel about officers having concurrent obligations to work both patrol and SWAT? Do you believe it enhances the officer's ability to do both jobs? Or do you feel it is to the detriment of each?

What types of firearms have you trained with and are allowed to carry in addition to your sidearm? Do you feel your agency has a realistic firearms deployment policy?

Aside from range training, what type of firearms training do you do? Are Simunitions a part of your training?
REPLY 1  -  1  of  1
8/10/2008 9:13 PM #1
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 379

RE: July 2008

On domestic disturbance calls, I always do my best to verify everyone's safety at that point in time. I will try to get the parties separated (even the kids) and talk to each of them alone. If one half refuses me entry, I will try to get to see the other half and keep talking until I do. If the call was for violence in progress or there are visible signs of violence, I will consider forcing entry but it depends strongly on the circumstances of the call.

As a patrolman going in on this call, I would have called out the SWAT and Hostage Negotiation team as soon as we got the word he was holding her hostage. This is why we have the specialized units. I might have led the officers in when the fire started, even without SWAT, but again, it depedns ont he circumstances at that moment.

I don't work SWAt, so I cannot sya for sure if it hurts or helps. I believe it does help improve both halves of the equation when the SWAT function is an adjunct to the regular patrol, but it is just a gut feeling. This way, there is a better chance of getting someone with the right training to a scene earlier and it might be needed. The problem is getting the rest of the officers to work with the SWAT member if entry is needed. This is getting better now with active shooter training though.

As for weapons, I have trained with rifles and shotguns, in addition to my handgun. I have had some military training with other weapons but I am not sure they are applicable to local police procedures, even for SWAT teams (not too many claymore or HE grenade uses in police work). I have trained with simunitions and blanks for force on force training and want to do more along those lines.

And, in this specific case, I think the officers handled the situation as well as it could be handled. They waited until they knew he was taking action against the hostage (Pulling her head back to expose the chest better) before shooting. You cannot ask for a more professional response and judgment.
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