Local law enforcement agencies train together at warehouse

Officer Robert Rose of the Jackson Police Department closed his eyes.

Other officers from Jackson, Cape Girardeau, the Southeast Missouri State University Department of Public Safety and the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Office circled around him, eyeing the molded plastic gun replica in his holster.

Suddenly, one of the officers leapt forward and made a grab for the gun. Rose clamped one hand over the holster and used his free hand to fend off his attacker.

Before he could catch his breath, Sgt. Adam Glueck of the Cape Girardeau Police Department told another officer to grab the gun.

Rose repeated the exercise until each officer had taken a turn.

Sgt. Adam Glueck, in the gray shirt, of the Cape Girardeau Police Department leads a class on fending off an assailant during a multiagency law enforcement training session Sunday at the Do-It Best warehouse on Nash Road. (Adam Vogler)

"It keeps you on your guard," Rose said afterward. "...It put more realism to it. You're probably not going to see an attack coming. ... It puts more intensity to the training. It's actually probably the best way to train, going through it."

The exercise was part of a multiagency law enforcement training session held Saturday and Sunday at the Do-It Best warehouse on Nash Road.

Roger Fields, assistant chief of the Cape Girardeau Police Department, said the company offered police the use of the building at no charge so officers from the four local agencies could brush up on emergency response skills and become accustomed to working together in high-risk situations.

Officers were divided into six groups that forced them to "step out of your comfort zone and who you're used to working with, because all these agencies will be working together at some point," said Sgt. Jason Selzer of the Cape Girardeau Police Department.

The groups rotated among seven stations, spending an hour at each.

One station gave officers practice using emergency medical kits similar to those carried by U.S. soldiers in combat zones. Fields said an officer brought the idea back from a tour of duty in Afghanistan.

The kits, which officers carry on them at all times, contain a tourniquet, an emergency blood-clotting chemical and other small items that can be used quickly if they are injured in the line of duty, Fields said.

In the building's break room, two officers ran through a room full of plywood barricades, shooting at each other with airsoft guns.

Fields and Selzer said the pellets from the guns sting when they hit and can leave welts or other small injuries, but that was part of the training.

"There's some pain compliance that goes with it," Fields said. "If you're still breathing, you're still in the fight. We don't train that if you get shot, you quit."

At the opposite end of the building, three officers positioned themselves around a pair of patrol cars, while two of their colleagues sat in a white pickup truck in front of the cars.

Darin Hickey, public information officer for the Cape Girardeau Police Department, outlined the scenario: Two suspects -- "an old, ugly guy and a short, fat, bald guy" -- were suspected of breaking into a house and binding the residents with duct tape.

Hickey's description of the "suspects," who were just out of earshot in the truck, drew a laugh from bystanders.

"Which one is which?" somebody asked, prompting more laughter.

Despite the laughs, the training had a serious purpose as officers re-enacted worst-case scenarios and critiqued each other's performances in role-playing exercises designed to expose common mistakes and increase safety.

At one station, community service officer Joey Hann of the Cape Girardeau Police Department showed colleagues the safest way to search a suspect.

After a role-playing exercise in which he played a distracted officer responding to a report of a suicidal man in an apartment, Hann discussed the importance of maintaining as many tactical advantages as possible when approaching a potentially dangerous situation.

Even a small misstep can be fatal, Hann said.

"That could be the difference between whether or not you survive that," he said.

epriddy@semissourian.com

388-3642

Pertinent address:

5422 Nash Road, Cape Girardeau, Mo.