Introduction by Commander  K. Thor Eells
Overview 

This blended (on-line & residency) course is designed to expose police SWAT team commanders and supervisors to contemporary SWAT issues, tactics and procedures. Topics include major incident debriefs; leadership issues, emotional intelligence, justifying SWAT; the use of SWAT teams; SWAT standards and professionalism; contemporary SWAT issues and concerns; SWAT and the media; selection, training, discipline and removal of supervisors and team members; crisis negotiations considerations; tactical operation center considerations; operational planning; weapons and equipment selection; legal issues and considerations; critical incident management; barricade and hostage procedures; warrant service planning and procedures; and much more.

Learning Objectives

Upon successful completion of this course, the student should be able to understand and describe:

  • Leadership & emotional intelligence.
  • SWAT personnel recruitment, selection, training and retention.
  • Training issues.
  • High-risk warrant planning.
  • Contemporary SWAT issues and concerns.
  • Resolution of barricaded subjects.
  • Hostage rescue operations.
  • Incident reviews from past operations.
[notepad]
  • Review the bios of your instructors.
  • Read your textbook as you go through the lectures.
  • Download slides for each section as reference material.
  • Review all lectures in all sections of the course and complete all associated discussion boards and assignments.
  • Write your essay and upload it to the Academy as instructed.
  • Take your comprehensive quiz.

EDInstructor:  Ed Allen is a lifelong resident of Seminole County, Florida and holds a Bachelors Degree in Applied Behavioral Science.  He is a graduate of the FBI National Academy, Session 242.  He worked for the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office for nearly 30 years and held command positions within the agency’s Patrol, Special Operations and Domestic Security Divisions.  He retired as the Major over the Department of Law Enforcement.  He is a Certified Emergency Manager through the International Association of Emergency Managers.  Ed is a Florida certified law enforcement instructor and Adjunct Professor at Seminole State College.  Ed is a Lead Instructor and prior Board Member of the National Tactical Officers Association.  He also served as Contributing Editor for the Tactical Edge magazine and is currently the NTOA Training Program Manager.

Wayne DuBois 133Instructor: Wayne DuBois has been a police officer for 18 years and currently supervises a Street Crimes Unit.  He has served with the Tri-City Regional SWAT team since 1998, and has been a Team Leader for the past 9 years.  Wayne serves as President of the Washington State Tactical Officers Association, and is the Lead Instructor for the WSTOA Training Cadre.  He has instructed with the WSTOA for over 10 years and has been responsible for training over 1000 officers in Basic and Advanced SWAT tactics. Wayne holds a BS in Government and Religion from Liberty University.

Thor Eells 133Instructor: K. Thor Eells has over 28 years of law enforcement experience with the Colorado Springs (CO) Police Department. He has served in patrol, investigations, and SWAT. The majority of his career has been in tactical operations where he has served as a SWAT operator, Team Commander and Division Commander. Until recently, Commander Eells was assigned as commander of the Specialized Enforcement Division. In this capacity he was responsible for highly specialized units such as, SWAT, K-9, EOD, Traffic Enforcement, Special Events and Air Support. While serving in this role he has obtained extensive experience in command post operations, to include both Tactical Operations and Emergency Operation Centers. He has overseen the successful law enforcement response and resolution of both man made and natural emergencies. Additionally, Commander Eells has experience as his department’s representative for WMD and Terrorist response with regard to coordination and planning with other local, county, state and federal agencies.  Commander Eells is now assigned to the Patrol Bureau, Falcon Division.  In addition to his practical experience, Commander Eells has extensive teaching experience with the NTOA. He has taught a variety of classes to include Basic/Advanced SWAT, Hostage Rescue, High Risk Warrant Service, Active Shooter and Less Lethal Munitions. Currently he is one of the core instructors in SWAT Command and Supervision. He teaches leadership, tactical decision making and Tactical and Emergency Operations Center functions. Commander Eells has instructed hundreds of students throughout the United States and Canada as well as in Europe and the Caribbean.  Commander Eells has also represented the NTOA in the Department of Homeland Security’s efforts to develop SWAT capabilities and typing. He was one of the core committee members in developing the NTOA’s National SWAT Standard and has been recognized as an expert witness in Federal Courts on Tactics, Non-Lethal weapons and Use of Force. Commander Eells is the recipient of the NTOA’s prestigious John Kolman Award of Excellence and has been awarded his department’s Distinguished Service Medal. Commander Eells is a graduate of the University of Colorado and has a Masters Degree in Criminal Justice. He is also a graduate of the FBI National Academy and Center for Creative Leadership. Commander Eells currently serves as the NTOA’s Chairman of the Board.

DonInstructor: Don Kester is the NTOA’s Director of Training and Education. Don leads the association’s training and education department and a prestigious cadre of instructors. He also manages NTOA training courses, seminars and conferences, as well as develops strategic plans to keep the NTOA at the forefront of law enforcement training and practices.  Don served more than 23 years with the Pima County (AZ) Sheriff’s Department, retiring in 2015. His assignments with the department included training director, patrol district commander, special operations, tactical response and staff services section commander, as well as the support operations and criminal investigations division commander.  Don’s SWAT experience spans the majority of his career. He served as a trainer, SWAT team operator, team leader, team sergeant and SWAT commander. He is certified as a chemical agents, FSDD and less-lethal instructor, as well as a master Taser instructor. He is also a firearms, defensive tactics and use-of-force instructor, and teaches many other specialties such as rapid deployment, warrant service, hostage rescue, TEMS, incident command and leadership. He has authored several articles on such topics. Don has served as a use-of-force consultant/expert on cases in superior and federal court, and he has served on the Law and Legal and Defensive Tactics subject matter expert committees for the Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board (POST). He was a delegate to the International Law Enforcement Forum (ILEF) for Minimal Force Options as well as on the Advisory Council for the Office of Law Enforcement Technology Commercialization (OLETC) and as a member of the SWAT Technical Support Working Group (TSWG).  Don was the Less-Lethal Section Chair for the NTOA from 2001 until 2008, and then served seven years as a member of the NTOA Board of Directors. He has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Arizona and is a graduate of the FBI National Academy.

Commander Buck Rogers 133Instructor:  Buck Rogers is the TTPOA Training Coordinator and is employed with the Bryan Police Department where he has served for over 24 years with 18 years on the SWAT Team. Buck has been a member of TTPOA since 1992 and has served the TTPOA since 2008. Buck served as the Competition Coordinator since 2010. Buck served 5 years in the United States Marine Corps and 3 years in the Texas Army National Guard Co G 143rd Airborne/Ranger LRRS. He earned a BA from Texas A&M University and has completed Leadership Command College in 2010 and the FBI National Academy Session 246. He has recently earned a Masters’ Certificate in Homeland Security (2012) from the Bush School of Government and a Masters’ Certificate in Criminal Justice (2011) from the University of Virginia. He is a certified TCLOE and Firearms Instructor as well as a Rappel Master. He is also an NTOA and Alerrt Active Shooter Instructor. He has attended various operator courses related to SWAT over the course of his career.

Luke Sherman 133Instructor: Luke Sherman is a 23-year veteran of the Tulsa Police Department.  He holds a bachelors degree of science in Criminal Justice from Northeastern State University in Oklahoma. He promoted to the rank of sergeant in 1999 and has supervised numerous different patrol squads as well as vice, task force groups and detective division units.  Sgt. Sherman currently supervises both the police department’s Fugitive Warrants Unit as well as the U.S. Marshal task force group responsible for the Northern District of the State of Oklahoma.  During over a decade of service as a member of Tulsa’s Special Operations Team (SOT), Sgt. Sherman served as a tactical operator, assistant team leader and also assistant team commander.  He has been involved in hundreds of warrants, high-risk warrants, tactical deployments, high-profile investigations during this time.  His duties and experience include high-risk warrant services, barricaded incidents, hostage incidents, dignitary protection and tactical training and instruction for SOT, the police department and other surrounding agencies.  Sgt. Sherman has been involved with tactical instruction for the past 16 years and is currently in his 11th year as an instructor for NTOA teaching Basic/Advanced SWAT, Hostage Rescue, Barricaded Gunman, Chemical Agents, Less-Lethal munitions, Flash Sound Diversionary Devices, Team Leadership, Commander Development and Advanced Tactics.  He has instructed on the state, national and international level involving the aforementioned tactics and philosophies with over 4600 hours (115+ classes or conferences) for the NTOA.  Sgt. Sherman has been a member of the Board of Directors since 2008 and has played a significant part in the continuation of forward change and implementation the association has undergone in the past decade.

Bill Young 133Instructor: William (Bill) Young is currently employed at the NASA Kennedy Space Center by Chenega Security and Support Solutions, and serves as the Assistant Chief of Security Operations and Commander of the Emergency Response Team. He retired from the Pennsylvania State Police after serving for 25 years with that agency and had been assigned to supervise various units during his career, including patrol, criminal investigations and special operations. Bill spent 19 years as a member and commander of the Pennsylvania State Police Special Emergency Response Team (SERT) and retired in 2013 as the commanding officer of Troop “A”, at the rank of Captain. He served as vice president of the Pennsylvania Tactical Officers Association (PATOA) from 2009 to 2015, and as the Tactical Command Section Chair for the NTOA from 2012-2016.  He is a graduate of the 245th Session of the FBI National Academy and holds a master’s degree in Organizational Leadership from Geneva College.

Leadership 

SWAT Recruitment, Selection, Testing and Retention of SWAT Personnel

Training Issues

High-Risk Warrant Planning 

Contemporary Issues 

Resolution of Barricaded Subjects 

Click on each of the following case law summaries to open and study.  Each case law summary is mandatory reading and is referenced in your course of instruction.  It is imperative that you familiarize yourself with these summaries, as they will be included in the on-line discussions and quizzes.

Based on the material that you have reviewed in this course, write a one-page paper in APA format, answering this question:

Explain some of the challenges a Commander faces in the recruitment, selection and retention of SWAT operators? 

Please follow these instructions for completing your paper and uploading it to the portal:

Follow the APA writing guidelines.

Name your essay before uploading it:  YourLastName_Command_1_Essay

Save your file on your computer in .pdf or .doc format and then upload below.

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