Greeley PD Protects, Serves and Partners

Sept. 15, 2017
How a Colorado SWAT team trains with local EMS to prepare for the unknown.

Fifteen years ago, it was fairly uncommon to find SWAT teams and EMS partnering together to train for active shooter scenarios, says Sergeant Fred Meyer, SWAT team lead with the Greeley Police Department (Colo.). But events that have taken place over the last few years have led Greeley PD to do just that. In 2006, the department integrated a tactical EMS (TEMS) unit that today acts as a strong example to others, showing the benefits and necessity of multi-entity collaboration and training.

How it all started

Over the last two decades, the state of Colorado has been home to several high profile active shooter events including the Columbine High School massacre (1999), the Aurora movie theater shooting (2012) and the Planned Parenthood clinic shooting (2015) to name a few. For the Greeley Police Department, these events showed the importance of preparing for such a scenario through a partnership with other first responders.

It all began in 2000, when a part-time paramedic tried to get a TEMS element started. “He received pushback because it was an unknown,” says Troy Osborne, division chief with Banner Health Paramedic Services. “It came down to liability and workers’ comp. We had to get the county and city to buy off of the fact that it wouldn’t be a jeopardy problem.”

Greeley PD’s Meyer had seen firsthand the benefits of having a partnership with EMS and was an early promoter. “From my perspective, it would be beneficial to have a medical component attached to SWAT,” he says. “We would have an ambulance and paramedics standing by, but the cops had to haul victims out, which stopped them from doing their job and put them in harm’s way.”

Not only did this stop police from doing their jobs and reaching their objectives, but it also hurt victims’ chances of survival. “The best chance of survival is at the point of wounding,” says Osborne. “Care slows down when you have to move people. Before the TEMS element, no one was trained in the hostage environment.”

In 2005 the TEMS idea gained support and by the next year a partnership was built—one that has been evolving for more than a decade.

The benefits of training

Today the Greeley Police Department SWAT division trains once per month for 10 hours with Banner Health Paramedic Services in a collaborative effort that has been beneficial from many standpoints, says Meyer. “[The paramedics] do a lot to watch out for us and they are making sure we are safe,” he says.

One of the greatest benefits of training together has been learning each other’s roles and gaining confidence in response to an attack. “Calls overlap and we know each other now,” says Meyer. “We have a relationship with other first responders that we didn’t have before.”

Osborne agrees. “We all know how to do our jobs, but now we also have an idea of what it takes to work together,” he says. “We have a clearer idea of everyone’s objectives.”

Training once per month also allows each group to practice different scenarios. Generally each training consists of 24 SWAT members and 8 medics, but depending on schedules, those numbers can vary. “We’ll get most TEMS medics to training day where we work on tourniquet techniques or we’ll have scenarios where one guy will go down and we work on protocols for officer-downed scenarios,” says Osborne.

This training has given Osborne the opportunity to educate officers in self-aid and has also trained medics in SWAT tactics. SWAT and EMS go through the same training, says Meyer, which means that medics, though unarmed, are given protection. “We don’t have a medic in stack, because they aren’t armed and can’t protect themselves,” he says. “But we do train with one to two officers per medic to provide safety while they are giving care to victims.”

Medics are also given equipment for the job. They wear the same armor as SWAT and are supplied with helmets and gas masks. “It wasn’t a hardship to get equipment,” notes Osborne. Rather, it was a collaborative effort.
Banner Health Paramedic Services also partners with another local law enforcement agency in SWAT/EMS training, so both departments stepped up and split the cost of equipment for the medics. Meyer says that his department simply budgeted for the medics’ supplies and received no pushback. “It’s what enables them to work in our environment safely,” he says.

Tech in the field

One of the best gifts that has stemmed from this partnership has been the ability to look at things from a different perspective—and technology has helped with that.

When it comes to technology, the Greeley Police Department SWAT team has added a lot to its inventory in the last five years, training extensively with robots and pole cameras. In many scenarios, technology has helped both SWAT and EMS prepare the proper response. “When a robot goes into a room, it can show us video of what’s happening in a location,” says Osborne. “A law enforcement officer will see a wheelchair or kids’ toys and know that they can’t throw gas. Medics will look at the same picture and they’ll be thinking of an elderly person or a child that may need help.”

For both groups, robotics and drones have helped in seeing a clearer picture. Recently Greeley PD invested in a drone to fly indoors, which has eliminated problems ground robots encounter, such as clutter on the floor. This technology gives a bird’s eye view of an area and also gives medics useful health information. “Robots and drones allow us to do a remote assessment, that way we have an idea of what medical treatment we need to provide when we get in. This was not possible years ago,” says Osborne.

Other technology and equipment integrations include the use of an armored ambulance, which comes with a regular kit and can transport two people. It also gives medics the ability to put more things in it, including oxygen.
What was once an anomaly two decades ago is now best practice, says Meyer, who is also a NTOA instructor. He encourages police departments across the U.S. to train with other first responders. “A partnership became more prominent for fire, EMS and police in our area and allows us to better protect our community.”

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