Are we participating in exercises to test ourselves?

[Anonymous]

[Wayne Griffin]

Yes, we do conduct table top exercises where we simulate incidents at football games, hurricanes, train derailments, and other major events. These exercises are conducted with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies, emergency medical services, city workers, and other city leaders.

[Drew Leblanc]

I think the most prominent support we can get as SWAT commands is the ability to have quality training that tests the parameters of normal training measures. I believe the multi-faceted approach into different disciplines prepares SWAT operations for success. We do mass casualty incident with both state and local government entities to embrace the separate disciplines and their ideas. I believe the more we work in collaborative groups will allow for future success when it comes to mass casualty events.

[Jeffrey Brown]

I believe we need to walk the walk and talk the talk as much as possible. As a team leader I was able to be with the men all the time. The duties of Commander have somewhat changed my perspective and I have to look at training and operations. I must be careful not to get too far down into the grass and get in the way of subordinate leaders. I still participate when I can. I maintain weapons and PT qualifications with the team. If there is a physical gut check or an exercise to make everyone question their own their personal motivation I with them. Otherwise my job is to learn as much as I can about the big picture, to develop subordinate leaders and let them run their elements. The lessons I learn in this type of training and implementing those lessons with my team and our operations are my real life test exercises.

[Jacob Taylor]

We should be. Any time we try new equipment or tactics we should be testing and documenting. We should also be testing ourselves to evaluate progress and set standards and expectations.

[Anthony Kies]

Every day you go to work as a patrol officer you should in someway be doing exercises in your down time to test yourself. As a SWAT team and a more importantly a new multi-jurisdictional SWAT Team I believe that all of our training exercises test ourselves. We do this with Team Leaders, Command and Administration. We conduct hands on live training, simulator training, table tops and simply test all of our new products to make sure it works for us. We of all elements of the law enforcement field must train to make sure above all that we know what our limitations are. That is the most important part that at times gets left out and sometimes missed due to all the things you can do. What I want to know as a Commander is what is your (our) limitations as a team and make sure that I have the proper people in place before I need them.

[Chris Eklund]

Team leaders must participate in exercises and training evolutions to not only continue to hone and maintain their skills but also to be able to recognize potential issues from the operators perspective. A leader may find themselves in a position to have to function as an operator and must be able to maintain that skill just as much as they need to continue to work on their abilities to lead.

[Max Yakovlev]

If we are not we should be. A team leader must know they his/she will react under pressure. The team must also understand and know its leaders abilities.

[Adam Bradford]

Yes, we conduct monthly training with multiple scenarios and tabletop exercises which require critical thinking from all Operators, at all levels of leadership.

[Jon Thompson]

Absolutely. Besides our monthly team training, our command element routinely does table-tops and debriefs, usually tweaking a scenario just slightly to see if the outcome or decisions may change. Some of these “exercises” are scheduled but more often than not, the scenarios stem from actual situations across the country or things we’ve learned about in the media. As a command element, we will place our team in the shoes of another team and explore what our decisions and what our teams tactics would be in a given scenario.

[Jesse Laintz]

We have to continue to test ourselves as most of what we do is perishable, if we don’t use it we lose it. Finding new ways to test ourselves can get challenging. This can be accomplished by hitting the books, listening to after-action reviews, and challenging your team to challenge you in training. A couple of times a year team leaders are tasked with preparing and executing scenario training when the command does not preview the training packet. The team leaders are asked to make it realistic but also to try and make it challenging for command.

[Shawn Wilson]

Short answer is yes; for a variety of reasons. It is imperative that we maintain our own skillset and continue to meet Team standards. We get a closer look at the tactics being applied when we are immersed in them and then can conduct a thorough AAR of them. We are better able to identify who the decision makers on the Team are and those that are hiding. The list continues and goes on and on

[Thomas Carroll]

Yes. We conduct table top exercises throughout the year. Once a year we conduct a full scale training scenario with all tactical support elements included to test team capabilities.

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