Opelousas SWAT team prepares
Members of the Opelousas Police Department’s newest Special Weapons And Tactics team spent Monday repeatedly storming a building on East South Street in an effort to free a pretend hostage.
While the training problem – a hostage situation involving a heavily armed felon – was fictional, Police Chief Perry Gallow said the training is deadly serious.
“With the nation’s tough economic times, we are seeing incidents like this all over the country, situations where an individual gives up on everything and does something stupid,” Gallow said. “The only way to prepare is to train.”
Opelousas has several SWAT teams already trained, but Gallow said it is training he’d like every officer to receive.
“It can take up to an hour to assemble a SWAT team. A patrol officer can find himself in a situation where he has to respond immediately,” Gallow said. “The information these officers are receiving prepares them for tragic events, dangerous situations. We want to make sure our guys are ready.”
Capt. Craig Thomas said about 70 percent of the department’s officers are now SWAT trained.
Thomas, who used to command his own SWAT team, served as training officer for Monday’s operation, observing the team’s performance and then going over the day’s events with the officers.
For the day’s operation, the officers were moving through a large office building where a gunman had supposedly taken a hostage and was threatening to kill both himself and his hostage.
“It’s a big problem, a big building, a lot of hidden areas,” Thomas said. “In a situation like this, we are always going in at a disadvantage.”
To help level the field, the operation began with officer Tyron Anderpont taking up a position on a nearby roof that overlooked the building, gathering intelligence for the entry team.
Once it knew what it was facing, the team arrived with bulletproof vests, Kevlar helmets and a range of weapons.
Thomas said, thanks to Homeland Security grants, the department is well equipped but is constantly seeking more. He said the one thing you never want to do is go up against a foe who is better equipped than you are. Still it can happen.
“That’s why this training is so important,” Thomas said.
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