SWAT Teams Survive Tough Tests

SWAT teams from across Southern California shot up targets, rappelled down buildings and sped through obstacle courses Monday in an effort to see who was the toughest, fastest and fittest.

The steady “pop-pop-pop” of submachine gunfire and cannon-like blasts from sniper rifles made much of Camarillo Airport sound like a combat zone. Special Weapons and Tactics units from Irvine, Oxnard, El Segundo, Fontana, Santa Monica, Anaheim, Torrance and the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department took part in the seventh annual Ventura Police Department SWAT Competition, which judged performance on speed and accuracy.

This year’s winner was Torrance, which also won last year’s competition. Second place went to Santa Monica, third to the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department, and Oxnard police took fourth.

The all-day event featured nine contests, including sniping, physical-fitness challenges and hostage-rescue scenarios.

In one such event, the Ventura County Sheriff’s SWAT team stormed a makeshift school building looking for a gunman who had taken a hostage and left booby-trapped pipe bombs.

Carrying German-made MP-5 submachine guns that fired paint balls, the team stormed a class before hearing the suspect screaming threats from a nearby locker room.

Seconds later, the team swarmed the room, shot the suspect and carefully scoured lockers for bombs. The entire operation took 74 seconds. The team was later penalized for failing to spot a pipe bomb, which lowered its score to 85 seconds.

“Eighty-five is pretty good,” said Cpl. Brian Hewlett, a Ventura police officer scoring the competition. “They are trying to work as fast as possible and as safe as possible.”

The competition was designed and sponsored by the Ventura Police Department, which invites selected teams from across Southern California to participate. Those invited come from departments of similar size that do not have full-time SWAT teams. That leaves out big-city agencies such as the Los Angeles Police Department and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Winners get individual plaques and the team receives a new shotgun.

The squads have no idea what awaits them, so preparing is difficult.

“The key is readiness, being prepared for anything,” said Ventura Police Lt. Bryan Roberts, who coordinated the SWAT competition. “There aren’t many places where you can be put through nine events in one day.”

And the events were designed for maximum stress.

Under a blazing sun, Irvine SWAT team members ran up dirt hills, climbed through tunnels, hoisted a gurney on their backs and then climbed two roofs. They did it in seven minutes and 23 seconds.

Afterward, the team gathered in a sliver of shade, dripping sweat.

“It was unquestionably difficult,” said Sgt. Jeff Noble, the team captain. “It’s hot and dusty, but our mission is to train for this kind of thing.”

Senior Deputy Bill Schierman of the Ventura County Sheriff’s SWAT team said that keeping cool under pressure was the key to success.

“It’s all about reacting under stress,” he said.

At the rifle range, Fontana and Oxnard SWAT team members lay in the dust and fired loud bursts from AR-15 automatic rifles at metal targets. Then they picked up submachine guns, ran and fired into two other targets. At that point, they grabbed shotguns and drilled three more targets before dropping to the ground and shooting about a dozen pistol rounds at still more targets.

The clatter, the pinging of bullets on metal and the smell of cordite gave the area the feel of a battlefield. One Oxnard officer suffered a minor cut when he was hit by a bullet fragment.

Oxnard has competed five times and won first place twice.

“Each scenario gives you a chance to do something, and you either accomplish it or you don’t,” said Oxnard SWAT Cmdr. Mike Matlock. “If you bomb, that tells you something about your training.”

All the competitors said they look forward to the event.

“We have a mini-competition in the team to select the best competitors to send here,” said Capt. Phil Sanchez, commander of the Santa Monica SWAT team, which has also won first place in the past. “The hardest part of the event is staying focused all the way through. You need to be good at everything.”