OC SWAT Team participates in Upstate Shield 2013

The S.W.A.T. team from the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office was one of several coalition members who participated in Upstate Shield 2013 Tuesday at the T. Ed Garrison Livestock Arena in Pendleton.  This is the third year that S.W.A.T. teams from various agencies have participated in these exercises.  The sessions were split up between the morning and afternoon. Besides the S.W.A.T. team from the Sheriff’s Office, other coalition members who participated included Anderson County EMS, the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office, the Anderson Police Department, the ATF, the Clemson City Police Department, the Clemson University Police Department, the Easley Police Department, the F.B.I., the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office, the Greenville City Police Department, the Laurens County Sheriff’s Office, the Laurens City Police Department, the Mauldin Police Department, the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office, the Simpsonville Police Department, the South Carolina Highway Patrol, the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office, and the Spartanburg City Police Department.  Several vendors set up tables inside the main livestock arena building itself and lunch was served between the morning and afternoon sessions.  There were also breakout training sessions held yesterday morning and afternoon, which included among other things, decision making, crisis negotiation, and vehicle assault and undercover rescue.  “We are here with several other S.W.A.T. teams and there are several different scenarios that are set up,” according to Ken Washington, Captain of the Special Operations division of the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office.  “Each S.W.A. T. team is responsible for carrying out the scenario and assaulting each scenario.  We are getting together, we are able to observe each S.W.A.T. team, other S.W.A.T. teams are able to observe us, and it is more of a networking thing.  We are able to let each other know that this is what we have and if you need it, you can call on us.” The Oconee County Sheriff’s Office S.W.A.T. team participated in a morning session scenario, called scenario #1, which took place at the cattle complex.  The scenario, according to Captain Washington, involved an undercover detective that was made.  The detective was taken hostage in the scenario and the S.W.A.T. team was called to try to rescue the detective.  The preferred method to rescue the detective, according to Washington, would be to negotiate, but if that did not work, then there are other techniques that could be used.  Sometimes, circumstances do not work out for the best, even in scenario’s, according to Captain Washington. “In this particular scenario, we were actually trying to get set up, and an I.E.D. (Improvised Explosive Device) went off and it hurt some of our entry guys.  So we actually have to go in and extract them and we have to call the bomb squad, so it put us in a bind.” In the scenario, the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office called the bomb squad from Anderson County and it gave Captain Washington and others the chance to see what resources are available from each agency.  Eventually, negotiators were able to get one suspect out of the building they were in, but that individual was wearing a suicide bomb vest.  A debriefing was held and an agent from the Joint Terrorism Task Force was able to debrief the S.W.A.T. team members and others deputies who were there, to find out how they did with their particular scenario and what they could do better. There were nine different scenarios, according to Captain Washington, and the S.W.A.T. team did not know what scenario they would be going through until they arrived Tuesday morning when they were assigned it.