CLEARFIELD – A vacant Clearfield residence turned into a scene this week for 39 police officers from 13 municipalities who received tactical training as part of a week-long SWAT class.
Clearfield Borough police hosted the class, which was conducted by the North American SWAT Training Association.
“It’s really crucial in this day in age,” said James J. Scanlon, one of the owners of NASTA. “Every police officer today must have tactical training, because even their day-in-and-day-out calls are a lot more high risk than they used to be.”
Scanlon said in one SWAT training exercise, they simulated a search warrant for a drug raid. He said the idea is to enter and to control the residence for the safety of the police officers, the occupants of the residence and the surrounding community. Scanlon said other training sessions involved situations with hostages and active firearms, as well as “every day tactics” for street encounters.
Scanlon said it is equally important to complete the SWAT training in the company of surrounding jurisdictions. He said collaborative trainings might not be as important in cities that have large police departments. However, Scanlon said it’s a “force multiplier” for the smaller police departments, and that makes it more beneficial for them and the community.
“When police officers train together, it makes each individual police officer more qualified and prepared to respond to any situation that the public throws at them. In other words, it gets them all on the same page tactically, and at the same time, they’re getting to know each other,” he said.
“Then, when they need more resources from surrounding agencies and show up together on a critical incident, they have already met each other and trained together.”
Police Chief Vince McGinnis agreed, saying one major benefit of the SWAT training is bringing together members of local and regional police departments. He said it’s an opportunity to see how each operates and to polish their skills as one group.
“That way when we respond to the real thing, we’re ready to go and we can keep everybody safe,” he said. “They’re walking through all of the particulars – how they need to approach, how they need to make entry, what they need to be saying, doing and watching for. They’re starting out at the 911 center and polishing all of those skills from start to finish.”
“This training will make this community much safer,” Scanlon said.
About NASTA
NASTA provides professional, comprehensive and individualized tactical training programs in the United States. It’s owned by Scanlon and Lt. Stephen J. Schwab, who are two, full-time police officers that have served the major metropolitan area of Columbus, Ohio. Columbus has had the presence of a full-time SWAT Section for the past 39 years
Scanlon and Schwab have a total of 67 years of experience in the field of law enforcement and 24 years of experience with the Columbus SWAT Section. Their training goal is to enable police officers to transform very dangerous and violent situations into those in which everyone can walk away safely.
For more information about NASTA, please visit its Web site at http://www.nasta.ws/.
