A four-day training course for regional police and firefighter medics was held in Minot this past week to educate on assisting the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team.
The purpose of a Tactical Emergency Medical Support (TEMS) unit is to do research and offer an analysis to figure what is needed before a call is made by the SWAT team, said Phil, the associate director and chief of operations at the Center of Operational Medicine at the Medical College of Georgia. He asked that his last name not be printed because of the sensitivity of his job.
"They provide immediate medical services to us in an emergency situation," said Justin Dump, a sergeant with the Minot SWAT team. He added that members of the TEMS unit also provide medical services to citizens and prospects, depending on the situation. Having a TEMS unit is "very important" to the SWAT team, Dump said.
"It's not possible, in some circumstances, to have an ambulance come in the middle of a scene, a scene that isn't 100 percent secure. Having that medical assistance can save a life," Dump added.
"If there's an officer down, or a citizen that was hurt in the immediate area, (the TEMS unit) would be able to get in there with us and provide the initial care they may need until they can get to an ambulance or a hospital," Dump said.
The seminar had 10 students, half from Minot with the remainder coming from Bismarck and the western part of North Dakota, and some from as far away as Rapid City, S.D.
According to Battalion Chief John Hocking of the Minot Fire Department, the out-of-town students will go back to their respective cities with this information, a step-off point for the training they need to do.
For the first two days of the seminar, the students received classroom training their participation has been "top notch" before finally going through with the role playing on Wednesday, Hocking said. The fireman's training center, located on North Hill, was used as the hands-on training field where theory was turned into reality. It was turned into a hypothetical county adjacent to a nuclear power facility. In this fictitious county, there are a number of community members performing felonious actions. The SWAT team, aided by the TEMS unit, are then called onto the scene.
Here, a large structure, a school in the scenario, is taken over. In his Southern twang, Chris Heath briefed the officers on what is going on in the building. Heath then accompanied the officers into the building as the scenario played out. After the exercise was over, Heath briefed the officers on what they did wrong and evaluated the situation. This is what Phil called a "crawl stage," in which the instructors act with the students, step-by-step. Throughout the stations in this setting, several officers, as well as dummies, were moulaged, or made up to look as though they were injured. Those who sported these latex applications that depicted wounds and blood a gory scene that is all too familiar to those who face terroristic situations were meant to represent members of the SWAT team who were felled in the line of action.
"They get this guy out of here (and give first aid)," Phil said. "That's their part of support for the SWAT team."
Today, the last day of the seminar, the students will engage in the same scenarios, but at a more hands-on pace. According to Hocking, the students will go through a "walking" stage in which they will pick up the pace and will have less involvement with an instructor, followed by "a run," in which case the students will participate in a scenario without involvement from the instructor. At this time, Hocking said, the students will know what to do and be "up and running."
Louis LaVallie, a member of the Minot TEMS unit who participated in the exercises, explained that before, the SWAT team was assisted on a medical capacity from a joint endeavor between the Minot Police Department and Fire Department. The idea of a TEMS unit was thrown around for years before it finally came to fruition, LaVallie said.
LaVallie explained that a standard EMS is trained to "stay back where it's safe."
"It's essential to our mission to still stand back, but within perimeter to respond," LaVallie added.
The Minot SWAT team currently has thirteen members, not including five TEMS unit members, Dump said, noting that four of the five TEMS unit members have been with the SWAT team since it first included a TEMS unit approximately two years ago. Before then, Dump said, the SWAT team would rely on the ambulance service for medical treatment, but "having the TEMS unit shortens the time period since they're right there with us."
"So far, we understand, there have been guys who have stepped up without hesitation, which is good," Dump said. "Four of those guys are the original members; they've been part of the unit since it was formed."
Dump added that unit members must be self-motivated and willing to be "part of a team concept."
"Overall, its teamwork that will get the job done," he said.
