HELENA — At the Montana Law Enforcement Academy, a six-day SWAT training course prepares officers from across the state to deal with high-stress, high-impact situations.
The course, taught in a layered format, starts with simpler tasks, and then complex layers are added throughout the week.
WATCH SOME OF THE TRAINING:
It prepares patrol officers for situations that tactical teams typically respond to, and teaches them to work together to make important decisions in larger teams.
“On patrol, you’re often times a single officer responding to these calls, so you’re doing these decisions by yourself and then as a swat team, we’re there as a team, so we’re making these decisions collectively and together to come up with a safe conclusion," said Officer Carlee Brown of the Kalispell Police Department.
When a tactical team is deployed to an incident, it generally means there is a significant risk to lives and safety, including barricaded suspects, serving high-risk warrants, hostage rescues, and more.
According to Lieutenant Matt Fleming of the Great Falls Police Department, "Once a certain risk threshold has been met and there’s an ability to introduce a tactical team, a properly trained one that has the necessary personnel, training, and equipment, then we can add stability. The ultimate goal of every tactical team is to save lives.”
During basic training, officers learn to safely resolve dangerous situations with specific tactics, language, and weapons.
“Our overarching goal is that somebody can leave this class and end up on a call the very next day, a swat call the very next day, and be a valued member of their team, and be valued added to the situation," said SWAT instructor Lieutenant Fleming.
However, this is not just a mandatory training. Officers from across Montana choose to take this next step to further their careers, all with a similar goal in mind.
For Billings Officer Mack Unruh, "I wanted to push to be in that position and help my department be better as a whole, help my shift be better, and then make myself a better cop as well.”
Now, these new SWAT team members will take what they’ve learned here back to their home agencies.
