KadicDeshi
Member
I happened across this today and thought it was interesting.
http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/186286/
I do have a question to our LEO members. In situations like this where the SWAT team is out of area, how do they handle crises that arise in their absence? The bit about being called away to handle a situation made me curious.
Barrett
http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/186286/
Fractions of inches, controlled breathing, smooth shooting — these decide which Special Weapons and Tactics team is the best.
After pulling off a betterthan-expected finish in last year’s Original SWAT World Challenge, the Arkansas State Police SWAT team is training to climb the ranks in its second try at the event, which runs April 25-28 in North Little Rock.
At the state police shooting range beside the Wrightsville Unit prison, Sgt. Jason Aaron and his team have met Wednesdays to ready themselves, focusing mostly on their shooting.
Most of the challenge’s various competitions combine physical activity and shooting at small targets, Aaron said.
Last year, when the event also was held in North Little Rock, the state police team didn’t know what to expect. It finished 12 th out of 24 teams but topped all other state police SWAT teams.
Aaron and his team were pleased with the results, but now, “We’ve got a little bit better understanding of what some of the events involve,” he said.
Beyond shooting practice and improving their physical fitness, the team is working on using problem-solving techniques to get through obstacles.
But the key is shooting, Aaron said.
“The misses cost you time,” he said. “There’s a 15-second penalty. You can run a long ways in 15 seconds.”
The challenge is that the events put team members under stress and physical strain, he said.
“It’s tough to run your fine motor skills while you’re excited,” Aaron said.
About 30 teams will compete this year, said Kimberly Haider, a spokesman for the event. Teams come from across the United States and Germany, Canada, Aruba and Taiwan.
The event will be at Camp Robinson and televised on cable network Versus. Police from North Little Rock and Little Rock are assisting in hosting the event but won’t be participating.
With so many teams com- ing to central Arkansas from around the world, the competition will be top-notch, said Lt. Robert Speer, commander of the state police SWAT team. The defending champion is the German Grenzschutzgruppe 9 (or GSG 9 ), regarded as one of the top counterterrorist units in the world.
“You’re competing against... the best of the best,” Speer said. “The guys understand what they needed to improve on. They’re pretty optimistic about having a good showing again this year.”
The state police team’s strength is sniper shooting. In that event last year, it finished sixth. It involves shuttling between areas and firing at targets at varying distances. The competitors have to calculate the distance and adjust their scopes within a time limit.
Speer said most of the state police SWAT squad members would be attending the event to support their team.
Capt. John Morrow, head of the state police Criminal Investigation Division, said one of the highlights of the challenge is meeting and sharing knowledge with so many different SWAT teams.
“We knew anything we would pick up out of it would benefit us in real-life situations,” he said of last year’s competition.
Having the event so close is convenient, he said, but leaves a chance that a real-life SWAT situation could arise and call them away.
“If the creek doesn’t rise, we plan on being there,” Morrow said. “When you’re holding it in your own state, you’re holding your breath that you aren’t activated in the middle of it.”
The team members, though, are just worrying about improving in the weeks they have left until the challenge. And they’re taking advantage of everything they learned by watching the world-class competition last year.
“The biggest difference was hit and missed targets,” Aaron said. “The better teams don’t miss targets.”
I do have a question to our LEO members. In situations like this where the SWAT team is out of area, how do they handle crises that arise in their absence? The bit about being called away to handle a situation made me curious.
Barrett
