Trending Topics

Lessons learned from a cold day in hell

Critiquing the callout to the volatile crisis at the Schneider National truck center, SWAT commander Jonathon Blaylock, a lieutenant with the Granite City (Ill.) Police Dept., offers these lessons learned:

1.) We ran out of walkie batteries quickly and did not have enough charging banks to recharge them for everyone deployed. Now we have banks in all of our SWAT vehicles.

2.) Hypothermia was a constant concern. Operators knew from past experience to have rain- and cold-weather gear packed in their kits, but not everyone had waterproof boots. That was a problem for those who wound up standing in two to three inches of water for hours at a time.

3.) Water that flowed out of the building from the sprinkler system froze, creating an ice rink at the entry points. Yaktrax or some other sort of cleats on their boots would have helped them keep their footing.

4.) After the suspect’s identity was confirmed, I should have distributed his driver’s license picture or other photo to the team members. This was overlooked due to chaotic conditions early on.

5.) Only one mobile CP was on scene, which we shared with fire and hazmat commands, a state’s attorney, and others, making things very crowded, noisy, and sometimes confusing. It would have been beneficial to have a second mobile unit at a separate location, dedicated solely to tactical operations.

6.) Agencies need to put their officers through critical incident management training. If patrol officers know how to shutdown traffic, create safe zones, account for people and personnel, and perform other initial basics of scene control before SWAT arrives, it can help tremendously in setting the stage for a successful operation.

Charles Remsberg has joined the Police1 team as a Senior Contributor. He co-founded the original Street Survival Seminar and the Street Survival Newsline, authored three of the best-selling law enforcement training textbooks, and helped produce numerous award-winning training videos.

RECOMMENDED FOR YOU