Northeast Montana SRT Trains for Hazardous Police Work

When the risk to public safety is elevated, The Northeast Montana Special Response Team (SRT) is ready at a moment's notice to spring into action.

"SRT is a special police unit that has specialized training to handle incidents of higher risk nature than what the normal patrol officer would be expected handle," said Glasgow Police Department (GPD) Assistant Chief Robert Weber, SRT Team Commander. "Basically, we get extra training for those incidents and have extra equipment."

SRT is slightly different from special weapons and tactics (SWAT) teams, which require even more specialized training.

While Hollywood portrays such elite police units as mainly responding to hostage situations or other such traumatic events, such instances are quite rare in the real world, Weber said.

Instead, SRT generally responds to incidents involving "the threat of serious bodily injury or harm," Weber said. "Or, if the person is known to have weapons or if there is a big threat. Also, it could be something as simple as arrest procedures where the incident has several people that need to get arrested."

Such situations would pose threats above and beyond what a typical beat cop or deputy are trained to handle, Weber said.

"Usually its violent offenses or violent felonies. It is very particular in the type of incidents we handle. Basically it is not for misdemeanors unless that misdemeanor involves some threat of a weapon or a group arrest where there are several people that need to be arrested. Then, it is a little different because we have the manpower to be able to handle that."

The ultimate goal is to prevent unnecessary bodily harm to the SRT members involved and those being arrested.

"We are a life saving organization. We are not a bully entity."

"With SRT, for the higher risk situations, it also focuses on the safety of the offenders because we have more tools to utilize than average patrol can, to create a non-life threatening end result," added Undersheriff Chris Richter with the Valley County Sheriff's Office (VCSO), and SRT Assistant Commander. "It also goes with high risk search warrants."

"We can make the area safe for the investigators to go in and complete the investigation," Richter continued.

Since being reformed in the past 16-months, the Northeast Montana SRT has responded to four incidents, Weber said. Three were in the Glasgow area, and one was in St. Marie.

"They ended peacefully," Weber said. "Our goal isn't for everybody to know such incidents are going on, unless it dictates safety."

Such a theoretical incident needing to be announced to the public would be on a main thoroughfare or in an urbanized setting where passersby could be at risk for bodily harm.

In all situations involving SRT, the goal is to avoid a shootout. However, the SRT is trained should such incidents become unavoidable.

"We have a lot of tools to get someone to surrender peacefully," Richter said. "But, it is pretty much their choice of what they are going to do. It is not ours."

One tool which can lead to a peaceful resolution is the psychological factor involved with confronting the SRT, Richter said. Getting a suspect to voluntarily cooperate allows for the best results, allowing the suspect or suspects their day in court.

"Overall, our first objective is community safety, and safety of the offender," Weber said. "That is our goal, a peaceful resolution for everything we do. At the same time, we have to have the equipment. For any incident, we can only control so much. We can't control what that individual in the house is going to do with themselves. That is why we have the equipment and the training we do, to help mitigate the liabilities or risks from their actions."

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

There currently are nine members on the SRT, including a medic who works for STAT Air, three officers from GPD, two members of VCSO, one Montana Highway Patrolman, and one deputy each from the Roosevelt and Phillips County Sherrif's Offices.

"Basically, on our team, we are in the process of getting everybody SWAT certified," Weber said. "Right now, there are four guys who are SWAT certified. It entails a 50-hour course from the state you have to go through. They have to measure your physical fitness. You have to pass the test. Then, after everybody goes through training, there are a minimum of training hours required every month on top of the initial training where the patrol division doesn't have."

Currently, the team gathers for at least four hours of training each month. To be SWAT certified, the team would need a minimum of eight hours training monthly, Weber said. Finding the time to do that is difficult because the team members are stretched across several agencies in three counties.

This is the second iteration of the SRT, with members from the previous unit being lost to attrition due to transfers or moving outside the jurisdiction.

Weber believed re-launching the SRT would provide much needed training for the participating law enforcement agencies.

"The way this started, it was a way for us to get together and train together at the patrol level for basic things because when somebody breaks into a house, or there is burglary call, it is patrol level guys who will handle it," Weber said. "We are still at the very bottom building our way up."

On June 18, several members of the SRT attended joint training exercises at the police shooting range northeast of Glasgow. They participated in firearms accuracy drills, house clearing exercises and other specialized procedures such as discharging a service pistol from within a police cruiser.

"Marksmanship is very important as far as being able to hit what you are shooting at, or in any situation," Weber said. "But, in a team more so because the situations we handle dictate your ability to shoot. You are shooting close to each other in a group of people at possibly small targets that are close up or far away. Shooting is a perishable skill you need to work on."

The SRT members, using semi-automatic rifles and pistols, moved down a fire line, engaging static targets from sometimes awkward positions.

"That day it was shooting from weird positions and in confined spaces because it is more than just standing on a fire line and shooting at a static target," Weber said. "Odds are, we are going to be moving and doing it in less than ideal conditions. It is inside a building, inside a vehicle, underneath a vehicle."

And, immediately following a police involved shooting, there are several factors to consider.

"If you engage your target from inside a car, and the target goes down, is the incident over after that? Or, is there more to do? Is the target still a threat, and if they are, how do engage that?"

SRT trains for such contingencies, because in the real world they do not know what will happen and it will happen fast.

"It could be something as basic as you run out of ammo, or your gun jams," Weber said. "That is the thing with SRT or SWAT, everybody thinks it is advanced. It is not. It is the basic stuff, just at a quicker speed."

Richter said a major factor is learning how to move as a team. SRT often moves in four member lines, known as "sticks." This tactic allows the team to have a weapon facing in all directions because threats could emerge from anywhere.

"Instead of patrol, with one or two people figuring out how to deal with a call or search a house, you have to work together," he said. "The team movement, you know what other teammates are going to do and how react to what they do, just making sure everybody is covered. It is a team movement that turns into a well oiled machine without talking."

The SRT training spills over into basic inter-agency cooperation, Weber said.

"Even on the basic level outside the team, if Chris and I are on a call together on a patrol level, and we have to clear a building, it goes a lot smoother and is a lot safer for everybody involved."

NO BROWN OR BLUE, JUST GREEN

When SRT is activated, they do not identify by their particular agency, but as members of the team. And, while there is healthy competition in training between deputies and police, such differences disappear during real world situations.

"We are on the same team and have the same goal," Weber said. "Everybody knows what we are going to do and how to accomplish that goal. It is to the point now where, at the moment, I am the team commander and Chris is the assistant team commander. But, the way it is setup is those positions will change and rotate so the guys get experience doing other stuff, too."

And, "it not just a basic patrolman that is going to be able to come on to the team," Weber said. "They have to have a history of making smart decisions at the patrol level to develop that."

Each member must have had a minimum of three years experience as a beat cop with a good history of conduct.

Then, on the team level, the most experienced members lead the sticks. They generally have an intermediate post certificate with more years on active duty.

At the commander level, including both Weber and Richter, members have earned an advisory certificate, post certificate and are SWAT certified.

The team is now focusing on honing its current skills, and learning new skills, such as less than lethal tactics.

"We have a guy that just got back from less than lethal training school, so now as a team we will have the capability for more than less than lethal stuff such as gas or beanbag rounds or flash-bangs," Weber said. "We are working at a getting a guy now to breaching school to become a breaching instructor."

All of this will add up to a highly trained and capable unit able to quickly deploy to active threats anywhere in Valley, Roosevelt or Phillips Counties, Richter and Weber said.