Training for dangerous situations
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CASWELL COUNTY -- The Rockingham County Sheriff's Special Response Team has wrapped up three days of intensive training.
The 16-member team engaged in a series of realistic drills to learn the latest techniques in diffusing life-threatening situations and taking dangerous suspects into custody.
The sheriff's office says it's not often that it's faced with a hostage or barricade situation serious enough to warrant calling out the Special Response team, but the facilitator of these drills at the former Blanch Correctional Facility in neighboring Caswell County says you have to be ready for one.
"What the SRT team is doing is honing their skills, going in and doing building searches, barricade subjects, bringing them out," said Lee Tate, the criminal justice programs director at Piedmont Community College. "They're trying to just practice, making sure that they don't make mistakes when it comes down to the real thing."
They mimic real situations.
They used paintball-type rounds, known as semunitions.
"I got shot a couple of times and it does sting; it does hurt pretty bad, but, you know, you look at it as a real thing," said Detective Juan Tejeda.
And a distraction device known as a "flash-bang."
The object of one of the exercises was to go into a building and bring out a pair of bank robbers.
"There were multiple suspects inside and they had to bring them out as they saw fit to do," said Tate.
Make no mistake, this is as real as training gets.
"The next step beyond is using real ammunition going after real bad guys," said Tate.
And as the real thing can sometimes be, the hours are long.
"We are putting each officer under the same stressors or as close as we can to what they would be under in an actual situation," said Captain Perry Brookshire.
It's not something for the faint of heart.
"You know that you're gonna get hit; there's a good possibility you'll get hit," said Brookshire. "I won't say it's an adrenaline rush, but it gets your adrenaline going, it gets your blood pressure up."
And when all is said and done, the training is about saving lives.
"You don't want your partner shot; you don't want anyone from your team hurt; you don't want the suspect hurt, but when their threat goes up our force goes up with it."