SWAT officers answer the call in Delco - for prizes
The wounded officer was propped against the wall, bleeding from an arm, a leg, and his chest. Two "active shooters" still were hidden inside one of the small classrooms.
The wounded officer was propped against the wall, bleeding from an arm, a leg, and his chest. Two "active shooters" still were hidden inside one of the small classrooms.
The SWAT unit's mission was clear.
"Your job is to save the officer," Haverford Township Police Officer Harvey J. Pike instructed. "Clear the building and get the bad guys."
About 100 SWAT officers from five Delaware County teams were responding Thursday at a site in Sharon Hill. But they were going after prizes rather than bad guys.
They were vying in six SWAT-related competitions, including shooting drills and an active-shooter scenario in a mock school set up at the Emergency Services Training Center on Calcon Hook Road.
The events tested the officers' tactical and physical skills, and medical knowledge.
At stake was the district attorney's trophy, individual recognition for the top two finishers in each event, and a year's worth of bragging rights for the overall winner.
Five teams - from Haverford, Upper Darby Township, Chester, Region 1 (towns in the southern part of the county), and Central Delco - competed in the third annual event. Haverford won in 2013, Upper Darby last year.
Pike first approached his command staff with the idea for a countywide SWAT competition, in an effort to promote better communication among departments that at any moment might find themselves side by side at an actual call.
"We thought it was a great idea," said John Viola, Haverford's assistant police chief. The District Attorney's Office, along with some industry vendors, agreed to sponsor the event.
The SWAT squads entered the mock school building in single file and surrounded the "wounded" officer. Once he was stabilized by paramedics, team members methodically searched the building for the perpetrators. In reality, they were FBI agents imported to help with the scoring.
Defending overall champ Upper Darby had a solid performance in the active-shooter exercise.
On the individual obstacle course, Ridley Township Police Officer Matthew Rowan had the winning time. The officers were required to run in full-body armor, jump over barriers, and carry a 60-pound battering ram up two flights of stairs. Rowan did it in one minute, 58 seconds.
"It hurt, but I trained for two months for it," said Rowan, a former college swimmer who has been on the SWAT unit for three years. "I love it. I can't imagine doing anything else."
In the final event, the team obstacle course, four SWAT officers from each unit traversed the route, leaping over barriers, diving into tubes, crawling under platforms, and carrying large truck tires. Then came the most punishing chore - lifting a 150-pound bag containing a training dummy up four flights of an exterior staircase using ropes.
And the winner of the 2015 trophy: Haverford, whose team members edged out Upper Darby's.
"It was very close all the way up to the end," said Haverford Lt. Joseph Hagan.
"We are very proud of them."
610-313-8111 @MariSchaefer