SWAT Team Participates in Training Exercise at Calamityville®

October 13, 2011
by Jason R. Pickett, M.D.

The Warren County Tactical Response unit received the call at 10 a.m.: "Shots fired at Cemex Cement Plant, multiple casualties, officers down." Two officers were lying behind their vehicle in front of the plant, calling for help on the radio. As the team approached the building, shots rang out from two floors, impacting the armored vehicles. Hostages screamed from inside. From the first few seconds, the officers could tell that this was a different kind of training scenario.

The SWAT team spent the day at Calamityville practicing hostage rescue techniques, building clearing, rescue under fire and tactical emergency medical support in high fidelity scenarios. Role players dialed up the realism to simulate casualties, hostages and suspects. Multiple scenarios provided opportunities in several settings to test the tactics, techniques and procedures of the officers and medics on the team.

Officers said the training was highly realistic and allowed them a rare opportunity to practice full spectrum operations under simulated fire. Simunition FX weapons, firing small paint balls, kept the training as true to life as possible and provided direct feedback to the officers when they were hit. This also allowed the officers to hone their accuracy in shooting while under fire. Wright State faculty and residents from the Department of Emergency Medicine monitored the scenarios to maximize realism and training value.

NCMR-Calamityville has developed a library of simulation scenarios for law enforcement training by expert faculty with years of experience in civilian tactical and deployed military environments. These scenarios can be used for SWAT teams, tactical medics, patrol officers, campus police or military personnel, and can be tailored to the customer to meet their training objectives.