Special Response Team ready for times of crisis

By Ryan Woodard , Journal staff | Tuesday, September 11, 2007

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RAPID CITY - In early August, the Pennington County Sheriff's Office/Rapid City Police Department Special Response Team was called to a hostile scenario in south Rapid City.

A man had locked himself into his house with a gun, and police negotiated with him for more than six hours before convincing him to come out.

Making the correct decision in standoffs and other scenarios doesn't come with luck -  it comes with preparation.

The Special Response Team consists of highly trained law-enforcement officers who rigorously practice different scenarios to prepare for the times when the team is needed. 

Jay Evenson, Pennington County Jail commander and commander of the Special Response Team, said training is necessary because the public will judge those split-second decisions that sometimes need to be made.

"We've got to weigh all those things and the decisions we're making moment by moment," he said. "The next day's going to be judged over the next months and months."

He said going in after the suspect could have led to repercussions that were avoided by waiting it out.

"The guy's got a gun," Evenson said. "So do you take eight guys and tell them go kick in that door and go get him? And what happens then when that guy starts shooting my officers? Was that a smart plan, or could I stand outside for the next six hours and negotiate with this guy until he gets tired and says, 'You know what? I'm tired of talking to you.'"

The August standoff is only one of the many situations the team has encountered since it was created as a combined team between the two agencies in the mid-1980's, according to Evenson.

Before then, the agencies had separate teams.

Composed of about 40 members from the Pennington County Sheriff's Office and the Rapid City Police Department, the team is called out to scenarios that are beyond the scope of what regular police officers are equipped to handle, Evenson said.

Potential team members must have four years of service with either agency and go through a special training course before joining. And team members undergo extended training sessions each month.

One of those sessions was conducted Sept. 5 at the public shooting range on Beretta Road south of Rapid City.

Members of the entry/perimeter portion of the team went through a number of drills - practicing entering hostile scenarios and shooting targets on the run.

"Every training, we like to get back to the basics," said Tony Harrison, a detective with the Rapid City Police Department who is also a team leader for the entry/perimeter team.

Team members went from firing and reloading their guns to shooting targets on the move to entering a tarped area designed to resemble a real room in a hostile situation, with painted on targets of "bad guys" and victims.

Harrison said team members are taught to go through a checklist in their head upon entering the scenarios.

The various types of specialties on the teams  - entry/perimeter, snipers and negotiators - all have their own specialized training and are all needed in different situations.

Evenson, who has been the team commander since January of 2006, said the team has been successful in handling the various scenarios that have come up over the years.

There were only two times that the team had to shoot a suspect, and both times, there was no other choice, Evenson said.

One of the events occurred in the 1980s when an escaped inmate held a waitress hostage at a farm house in Wall and came out shooting at officers.

The other scenario occurred in 2004 when a man shot at Rapid City Police officers from his residence.

"Out of every one we've responded to, we've done the right thing," Evenson said. "Two of the people who were shot - there was no other option."

Evenson said some of the scariest scenarios occur at schools, where there can be hundreds of young lives at risk. The latest school scenario dealt with by the team occurred in April.

In what turned out to be a false alarm, response team members and other law enforcement officers responded to Rapid City Central High School for a reported gunman in the building.

Evenson compared that scenario to the 1991 incident at Rapid City Stevens in which a teenage gunman in a classroom was subdued by fellow student Chris Ericks.

He said at that time, Rapid City was "probably one of the first communities to have to deal with one of these situations."

Back then, officers were taught to secure the building and wait for specialists to arrive on the scene.

However, since the Columbine shooting, officers have been instructed to immediately enter the building and try to find the shooter.

Officers did exactly that for the Central event, which led them to the discovery it was a false alarm.

With all of the inherent risks, some might wonder what drives team members to join. After all, they are only paid for their hours and receive no extra compensation. Evenson said the honor of being on the team is enough for some.

"They don't get paid anything extra," said Evenson. "The only benefit to being on the team is to knowing that you did a job well done, that you were there when things went down the tubes and you were part of the folks that helped make it right." 

Sgt. John Olson, who serves as a team leader with the perimeter/entry part of the team, said he enjoys the excitement and feeling of being part of the team.

"The reason why I joined was, first of all, to be part of an elite team," he said. "That's an honor in itself, to be part of an elite team."

Olson said he also enjoys being on the team because it provides him extra training, and allows him to do his regular duties even better. Plus, it's fun, he said.

"It's an exciting job," he said. "The excitement draws you in."

Contact Ryan Woodard at 394-8412 or ryan.woodard@rapidcityjournal.com