San Joaquin - Index

San Joaquin - may08 - Index

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staying strong
SWaT never knows what they will encounter when called on
scene, one reason they make sure to log in a practice of ten
hours or more at least once a month. at a recent session,
following a six-and-a-half mile noontime run, the SWaT
team went through drills at an abandoned county building,
located at Wilson and Hazleton in south Stockton.
Hearty yells of, “Open up, this is the Sheriff’s Department. We
have a warrant,” could be heard throughout the block as curious
passersby looked on. Sometimes when the mock suspects didn’t
obey, the next sound would be that of a door being broken down,
and the struggle of getting the mock suspect into handcuffs, or
even the flash bang of a smoke bomb going off with hopes of
confusing the mock suspect into submission.
Other regular training includes shooting from different
distances and in different positions: standing up, laying down,
crouching, sitting. On actual emergency calls, the SWaT team
has been called in to cover a suspect while a negotiator tries
to talk him or her into surrendering peacefully. a SWaT sniper
may have to keep the suspect in his scope for minutes or even
hours, waiting for an order from the team leader.
in order to keep the weapon steady, a sniper must also
learn to control his breathing, a skill learned while attending
mandatory basic and advanced sniper training.
Training keeps shooting skills from different distances sharp,
because without practice learned skills can become rusty.
SWaT has to be ready for anything, and with fourteen
hundred square-miles of unincorporated jurisdiction from
acampo to mountain House, the Sheriff’s Department has a
large swath of land to cover. Within thirty minutes, enough
SWaT members can be called to any incident to serve and
protect, regardless of the severity. even if it’s 3 a.m. SJm
42 san joaquin magazine maY 15-JULY 1 2008