Toughing It Out

Six Oxnard SWAT team officers, dressed in heavy police garb, crept up to the door of a rundown two-story home in Ventura.

The plan, part of a daylong competition, was to serve a search warrant at the home of a known gang member. What team members weren’t expecting was the paint gun awaiting them behind the closed door.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

The whipping sound of gunfire rang as hot-pink paint pellets flew through the air.

“Officer No. 1 down, officer No. 1 down,” someone shouted as Officer Robert Flinn collapsed on the concrete.

Fellow Oxnard SWAT team members clutched the shoulders of their wounded man, swiftly dragging him away from the house to safety.

Some distance from the firing, Flinn jumped to his feet and joined in a discussion of how the team could have better handled the surprise attack.

It was a contest sponsored by the Ventura Police Department, in which SWAT teams from law enforcement agencies across Southern California battled for the title of top SWAT unit. The competition was tough, leaving little room for error.

Monday was the fifth year Ventura has hosted the competition, designed to test the skills of these highly trained units in areas such as shooting, physical fitness and responding to emergency calls.

The event drew 10 teams from throughout Southern California, including the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department and the police departments of Simi Valley, Oxnard, Torrance and Barstow.

Oxnard won top honors for the second year in a row. The county Sheriff’s Department took second, with Torrance placing third.

As hosts of the event, Ventura officers did not compete.

Authorities call the competition a great training exercise--a way to test skills that may not be used in everyday police work but are vital in emergency situations.

“It’s a way to get out there and challenge yourself,” said Ventura SWAT team leader Sgt. Brian Roberts. “These teams can get out there and run through nine different tests in one day.”

But others felt there was another, slightly less noble, reason for participating--namely bragging rights.

“We’re here to win,” Oxnard Senior Officer Scott Hebert said. “We have a real competitive drive. We’re here to compete, to show that all the training we do does pay off.”

Several events were held at Grant Park in Ventura and at Camarillo Airport. In one eight-hour period, competitors would show off their sniper shooting skills, react when one of their officers is unexpectedly shot during a call, and rescue a hostage from a car full of gun-toting bad guys.

But among the toughest tests proved to be the two obstacle courses that forced the officers to shimmy up a rope, dash over rooftops, dive through open windows, and run, run, run. Two steep hills left most gasping for breath.

“That first hill, that just takes you out,” said Ventura County Sheriff’s Deputy Carlos Macias. “I got about halfway up the hill and my legs went, ‘Oooohhhh.’ ”

For Flinn, whose trial in federal court on police brutality charges ended in a mistrial last week, Monday was a chance to return to the police work he’s done for seven years.

Flinn likened his team’s response to the mock shooting to a reflex reaction.

“It’s muscle memory,” he said. “We’re trained for this.”

After hours of watching several teams on the shooting range in Camarillo, Ventura Officer J.D. Dean noted this year’s competition for top prize was tough.

“The competition gets stiffer every year,” Dean said. “But, you know, it’s a tough world out there, so they have to be tough. The way things are these days, you won’t find a bad SWAT team.”