I Tried SWAT Academy
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00:00 final challenge where I will be going on a mock mission with a real-life SWAT team.
00:04 Challenge accepted.
00:08 Hello my name is David Nisleit and I am the chief of the San Diego Police
00:13 Department. The first thing that we're gonna put Michelle in is our physical
00:16 fitness course. Can you climb a fence? Can you low crawl? Can you complete these
00:19 different obstacles? Because in real life wearing a lot of heavy equipment we
00:23 might ask you to do all that. In order to pass I need to sprint a quarter mile in
00:27 under 85 seconds, do 30 sit-ups in a minute, 20 push-ups in a minute, 6 pull-ups
00:32 and then complete the obstacle course in under 4 minutes. All back to back to back.
00:38 This is the easy part. Just a sprint. Alright Michelle stand by. 3, 2, 1, go.
00:52 74, 75, 76, 77. 77 seconds. Good job you made it.
01:00 Barely. After passing the quarter mile sprint I then proceeded to pass the sit-ups.
01:04 You're done. 45. Okay. Pass the push-ups. 1, you're done. 34. But then I failed the
01:13 pull-ups. 3 reps. Dang. It's challenging especially doing everything back to back.
01:20 I'm just frustrated because I trained for like 4 months to get 10 pull-ups for
01:24 the Navy SEAL test. It's just frustrating how quickly the strength goes
01:29 away when you're not working on it actively. But even though I failed the
01:33 pull-ups they still let me try the final event, the obstacle course. The obstacle
01:37 course needs to be ran in 4 minutes and under. So the required equipment as
01:40 you already have on, long pants, shoes, gloves and you have body armor underneath it.
01:44 So there are a lot of different obstacles throughout this. Which one is
01:48 the most difficult? I would say the dummy drag is probably the hardest for folks
01:52 carrying about 180 pounds. Your legs feel like jello. Okay. 3, 2, 1, go.
02:02 Good job Michelle. Control your breathing. Come on. Use those arms.
02:10 Hook that leg. Come on. Get your body nice and low. Good. Nice. Nice. Good technique.
02:18 You're almost there. There you go. Okay you're coming up to the window now. Get through.
02:22 Tuck and roll. Come on girl. There you go. There you go. You got this. Use your hips.
02:31 Use your hips. Swing your hips. Hook that leg. Hook it. Nice. Good job. Let's go.
02:39 Okay use your legs Michelle. Let's go on this one. Short little step. Nice. Whatever you do, just keep moving your legs. Keep moving your legs. You're doing great.
02:51 Drag it anywhere you can Michelle. We can't stop here. We can't stop here. Let's go. Okay. You can do this. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Keep going. Keep going. And drop. Drop. Let's go. Now you got a fence. When you go over this fence I want you to control your descent on this.
03:09 You're going to land on the way down. There you go. Nice. Nice job. Drop and go. Drop and go. Come on. Hook that leg. Hook that leg. Come on. Get it up there. Get it up there. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go Michelle. Come on. Get up and go. Let's go. Here we go Michelle. Almost there. Use those legs up. Get through. Here we go. Nice. Roll. Let's go. Roll.
03:33 Keep your head. All right. All the way up. Slow descent. There you go. One foot at a time. Go. Go. Go. Go. Go. Go. Go. Go. Time. 555. Okay. Good job. So obviously I have not passed the entrance qualifications for being a part of SDPD SWAT. Unfortunately you have not. Doing it with the vest is so much harder. That was impressive. Well done. Thank you.
03:59 The term SWAT stands for Special Weapons and Tactics. Entry training is one of the most integral things that we do. It really relies on teamwork. It's tough. The training is tough.
04:09 We're going to talk about working in a team environment carrying a firearm. It starts with ready positions. Buttstock in the pocket of the shoulder. If I make the decision to fire I will snap up, safety off, and then I can depress the trigger and take the shots necessary to end that threat.
04:27 Generally it's either going to be a low ready position or the high ready position. And this is where it's... That's the one you see on TV shows. It's the hip, sleek, and groovy thing. Yeah.
04:37 What if I were standing in front of you on an entry team? Would that be an appropriate position for you to be in at that moment? No. Yeah. Probably want to come completely to high port. High port. High port. Yep. It's like a fine wine. Exactly. Exactly.
04:51 Right here in my beautiful illustration of a room is... This is going to be our doorway. So we're going to like to do what we call a cross stack. One operator here and one operator here.
05:03 How we're going to decide who one and two is, there's going to be a little bit of body language involved. As I'm walking up, you see his body language? He's saying, "I'm number one." Yeah.
05:13 My body language, I'm coming up. I'm supporting. I'm in support and I'm looking right at him. "Hey, what do you want me to do, pal?" He wants me to open the door. He raises his muzzle and puts it right back down. That to me is saying he's ready for me to open the door.
05:26 Open the door normally or like SWAT style? Just normal. Okay. Yeah. It's really embarrassing to breach an unlocked door.
05:38 That's a big misconception about SWAT is that we're going to get to a scene and we're going to jump out of our truck and run right up to the door and kick it in and go fully tactical like right when we get there.
05:51 But that's almost the exact opposite of what we do. We're going to get to a scene and we're going to do everything we can to try to slow things down, deescalate, and try to negotiate and have them surrender peacefully.
06:01 That's always the goal and to be honest with you, that happens a majority of the time. I open the door and then he's going to step into the room going path of least resistance and I get in right behind him.
06:11 When you're coming into the room, we call this the hard corner. The hard corner? Yeah. You have to check this. There's no way that we're going to be able to see if somebody's standing right here, so that's why it's called the hard corner.
06:21 The magic here, if you will, is going to be the placement of our feet. And we're covering each other as fast as we can through here. It's like you're dancing partners. It's like a dance, but I want a different partner. You don't like dancing? Good footwork. Move past it.
06:37 So we get in there and then we're going to start scanning the room. Muzzle pointed. You can be looking right over the top of your sights because you want to be ready for something that needs to be addressed.
06:48 There it is. Clear. Clear. You say clear? Cool. It technically goes clear, all clear, last room. We don't need to get into that. But that's cool. Okay, fine. Clear. All clear. Last room. Let's go.
07:07 If I'm one going through that door and I go through and there's a bad guy right here, I have to absolutely 110% trust that Sam is going to get in there and take care of that bad guy if need be or else you could die.
07:23 There were a couple different instances that kind of were tragedies that kind of shaped how our team works. In 1984, there was the McDonald's massacre. A gunman just went into the restaurant and started shooting people that were eating lunch.
07:35 He fired through windows, hitting people in the street. He fired at men, women, children, and babies. One officer said it looked like a mass execution.
07:43 It just demonstrated the need for us to have a team that is trained in hostage rescue. The quality of officer hasn't changed, but the tactics and equipment have.
07:51 We have our armored rescue vehicles, our night vision goggle systems. We have robots that we can send in. And then, of course, we have our snipers.
07:59 And there's another incident that kind of changed the rules on that for us as well, and that was Las Vegas a few years ago.
08:05 The deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history at an outdoor country music festival on the Las Vegas Strip.
08:10 When I was on the team, we never had Overwatch. Large-scale events are now possibly targets. Rock and roll marathon, Comic Con.
08:17 We've had the Major League Baseball All-Star Game here, and so our SWAT team is key to making certain those events stay safe.
08:23 Anything that is preventing a team or an officer from getting into an area or a structure, breaching may be required.
08:33 What we have planned for you is manual breaching and then explosive breaching.
08:37 For hostage rescue, we would try to use explosive breaching.
08:41 Because you want to get in there as quickly as possible.
08:43 The biggest rule as far as breaching is always check the doorknob. It's always going to be faster to open up the door. It sounds funny, but it's true, right?
08:51 This is a door knocker. It weighs about 32 pounds.
08:54 Woo!
08:55 All right?
08:56 It's so heavy!
08:57 If you keep your eye on where you're going to attack, which is always going to be that deadbolt, you're going to come back through and just...
09:02 Woo!
09:03 And hit it, okay?
09:05 So...
09:05 SWAT has arrived.
09:07 So we'll come up, we'll check the doorknob, and then go ahead and... Okay, it's locked. Get your feet set.
09:11 All right.
09:15 I should try that again, I think.
09:17 All right. Do it like this. I set my feet, and then you're coming from the waist and hitting.
09:22 Knock, knock!
09:23 There you go.
09:25 Can you imagine, like, you hear this noise and it's me on the other side?
09:30 Good morning!
09:31 So what's next?
09:32 I think we need to go do the exciting stuff, doing the explosive breaching now.
09:35 Oh, we're going straight from this to blowing things up?
09:37 Yep.
09:38 Okay. Things escalate quickly around here.
09:40 Yes, they do.
09:40 Now we're going to place an explosive charge on the door, which would theoretically provide us an instantaneous opening into the structure.
09:50 Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god.
09:52 This is some, like, Looney Tunes, pump the box, blow it up.
09:56 Fire in the hole! Fire in the hole! Fire in the hole!
09:59 Standby for breach in five, four, three, two...
10:06 Positive breach!
10:16 Everybody good in here?
10:20 Yeah.
10:21 All right, and cut it. Scenario over.
10:23 That was full-on Wile E. Coyote.
10:27 We literally had a wire with a button.
10:30 Blow it up.
10:31 How does it feel to push the button?
10:33 You're going to find out in a second.
10:34 I'm going to be Wile E. Coyote?
10:37 Yeah.
10:37 Yes!
10:39 Just get in the habit of tucking your head.
10:43 That way, if there is any overpressure as you initiate the charge, it bleeds over the top of your helmet.
10:49 Okay.
10:50 Rotate the cam safety up so you're seeing red, and then this is the trigger right here.
10:55 When you get to one, that's when you press the button.
10:58 Standby for breach in five, four, three, two...
11:03 And then fall in with them.
11:10 Positive breach!
11:13 Oh my gosh, it felt so epic.
11:15 Yeah.
11:15 Pushing a button like Wile E. Coyote.
11:18 Bam!
11:19 Oh my gosh.
11:20 Yeah, okay, it's way cooler.
11:21 Yeah, yeah, way, way cooler.
11:22 One of the things we're going to have Michelle do this week is rappelling.
11:28 A little birdie told me that Michelle might have a little bit of fear of heights,
11:31 so this is going to be interesting.
11:32 What we've set up here is a scenario where we have a window about 40 feet up,
11:36 and then we have another one about 20 feet off the ground below us.
11:39 We're going to get comfortable bounding into that window.
11:41 So this is fully safe?
11:44 Yeah, we do it all the time.
11:46 Okay.
11:47 One of the reasons why we do this, it has real world applications.
11:50 We've had some missions where we've had to put officers in a rappel position
11:54 to close off avenues of escape, but also goes back to that trust.
11:57 Not only trusting your teammates, but also trusting in your equipment.
12:00 Keep hold of the windowsill.
12:04 Very good.
12:04 And this kind of reverse pull up right into your break.
12:08 Good.
12:11 You've got your break strand,
12:12 and you're not going anywhere until you decide that you want to start moving.
12:17 Release it a little bit,
12:18 and you can get an idea of how you control the friction.
12:21 Very good.
12:23 Good.
12:25 This is kind of fun, actually.
12:28 Good.
12:28 Window, what do we do?
12:30 That's okay.
12:30 Just go ahead and rappel right past it.
12:31 Good.
12:34 Nice work.
12:36 Remember, if there's tension in that hand, tension in your body,
12:38 it's going to put tension on the line.
12:40 Good. There you go.
12:40 Oh my god.
12:42 That was really good.
12:43 I didn't look down once.
12:45 Now we'll just work on your comfort with that level of friction,
12:48 and your brake hand.
12:49 I'm looking cooler.
12:49 Controlling that brake hand, and you'll start to go a little bit faster,
12:52 and we'll work into it.
12:53 Okay, now we get to have fun.
12:54 All right, let's do it.
12:54 Now, we can get our feet on the wall a little bit more,
12:58 what we call failing out a little bit.
12:59 You're going to end up going a little bit faster.
13:02 Nice.
13:03 You got it.
13:07 Keep going.
13:08 Good.
13:08 Very nice.
13:09 For our next one, we're going to try to bound past the window.
13:12 You're just going to push a little bit,
13:14 release, down to the bottom of the window.
13:17 Big bound.
13:17 Big bound.
13:18 Nice.
13:20 Good job.
13:21 Now, we're going to work on trying to bound into a window.
13:24 How do you land?
13:26 Like Spider-Man?
13:27 No.
13:28 You can watch me.
13:29 Oh my god.
13:33 You got it.
13:34 Ready?
13:34 One, two, three.
13:36 There you go.
13:39 I can do better.
13:41 Three, two, one.
13:43 Oh, I breaked as I landed in the window.
13:48 Here we go.
13:53 Go.
13:55 Hey.
13:58 All right.
14:00 Yes.
14:02 You nailed it.
14:03 A former employee that was recently fired took his boss hostage at this local establishment.
14:09 The suspect was reportedly armed with a pistol and a rifle.
14:13 Suspect gave a one-minute countdown before he would execute the hostage.
14:16 So you and your one or two have arrived at this door and you are about to make entry.
14:22 Do you have any questions?
14:23 So there will be people in there who may be firing back at us?
14:27 Yeah, there will be live role players in there and they will be able to shoot some munitions back at you.
14:32 Okay.
14:33 What are you doing here?
14:33 Hey, hands down.
14:34 Why are you here?
14:35 Hands up, hands up.
14:35 On the ground, on the ground, on the ground.
14:37 And end scenario.
14:39 I said hands down.
14:42 Stress is starting to take over which bottled you up getting through that door.
14:45 Getting bottled up in the doorway is one of the worst possible things you can do.
14:49 That's called the fatal funnel.
14:50 The more time you spend in the doorway, the more you're going to be in the doorway.
14:54 So you're going to be in the doorway for a long time.
14:56 You're going to be in the doorway for a long time.
14:58 You're going to be in the doorway for a long time.
14:59 You're going to be in the doorway for a long time.
15:02 So you've got to get through that doorway.
15:04 So you've got to get through that doorway.
15:06 Okay.
15:07 Hands up, hands up, hands up.
15:17 Down on the ground, down on the ground.
15:23 And scenario over, scenario over.
15:25 Weapons are unsafe, let them hang.
15:27 That's a pretty tough shot.
15:28 Yeah.
15:28 So I would say that that was a good job.
15:30 Okay.
15:31 But you didn't check the hard corner.
15:32 And then Stephanie cleared her barricade for you.
15:35 As you're walking past there, you looked to make sure that it was clear,
15:38 which is a normal human thing to do.
15:40 Okay.
15:40 Except for when you're in a team environment.
15:42 That's where the trust issue comes in.
15:44 When she tells you that is 100% clear, you do not look over there.
15:49 Okay.
15:49 You just walk right past it like it wasn't even there.
15:52 Okay.
15:52 All right.
15:53 Let me just say, Call of Duty in real life is so hard.
15:58 We're going to roll right into some night vision.
16:01 So all you want to do is you're going to hold that down until it turns on.
16:04 Good?
16:07 Yeah.
16:07 It's like a ghost hunting show.
16:08 I know.
16:09 The only thing that's in play are barricades and then paper targets, paper targets only.
16:15 Shoot until the target goes down.
16:17 Let's go ahead and put your knives down.
16:19 Turn them on.
16:20 House is hot.
16:23 Scenario over.
16:37 Put them back.
16:37 Let them hang.
16:38 After night vision, the instructors wanted to introduce a concussive explosive device
16:42 known as a flashbang into the next scenario.
16:45 But first they wanted me to experience the blast firsthand.
16:48 Any questions?
17:03 No.
17:05 All right.
17:05 We are live in the scenario.
17:06 Get in there.
17:11 Get in there.
17:11 Hands up.
17:16 Hands up.
17:17 Hands up.
17:18 Hands up.
17:20 And end scenario.
17:21 Had that suspect been in the deep right side, Phil's dead.
17:25 I know that the flashbangs scare you, but you've got to get in there.
17:29 You've got to be his two into that room or else you're doing him a disservice.
17:33 And frankly, you're doing the hostage a disservice.
17:36 And once that trust falls apart, the entire thing falls apart from there.
17:40 Does that make sense?
17:41 Absolutely.
17:44 For Michelle's final challenge today, we're at strategic operations, which is owned and
17:48 operated by Mr. Stu Siegel.
17:49 This is a movie set.
17:51 And in movies, they try to make things realistic.
17:53 So in training, it's the same way.
17:54 So we're going to have real life dispatcher, our air support unit helping us out, other
17:58 SWAT operators with her, everything that we would have in a real scenario.
18:02 All right.
18:03 We are live in the scenario.
18:04 321, John.
18:05 Shots fired.
18:06 Shots fired.
18:07 Number of shots fired, 4705 Rock and Road.
18:10 315 King, show us an route to code 12.
18:12 321, John.
18:14 I'm shot in the leg.
18:15 I think it's broken.
18:15 I can't walk.
18:16 321, John, cover us a route.
18:19 When we see the suspect, it looks like he's elevated in a third story.
18:26 He's only about 60 feet away from the officer who's still taking cover.
18:29 So the officer is pinned down by an elevated suspect.
18:31 Let's move.
18:35 Let's move.
18:35 Cover my right, Michelle.
18:38 Cover my right.
18:39 Suspect's on the third floor.
18:41 Looks like he has a view in all directions.
18:43 Move south toward that white Connex box with the doors on it.
18:47 315 King, come in.
18:54 Okay, Michelle.
18:55 I'm going to move forward to this next piece of cover right now.
18:57 Can you cover me?
18:57 Moving.
18:59 Go.
18:59 Cover me, Michelle.
19:05 Cover me so I can move.
19:06 Over here.
19:11 Suspect looks like he's reloading.
19:12 Coming up.
19:14 I'm here.
19:14 I'm here.
19:14 I'm here.
19:15 Okay.
19:15 I got shot in the leg right here.
19:16 Right leg.
19:17 The right leg.
19:17 Michelle, pull him back.
19:17 Get that tourniquet on.
19:19 Pull him back.
19:20 The right leg.
19:20 Right leg.
19:20 The suspect is on the second floor now.
19:23 He's moved down to the second floor of that tall structure.
19:25 Michelle, how's that tourniquet looking?
19:27 Good.
19:28 And now we're going to move him back to position to cover.
19:29 The tourniquet has been applied.
19:31 We're moving him back to position for cover.
19:37 We need you to cover us so we can move back and do the extraction.
19:44 Got it.
19:45 Okay, Michelle.
19:45 Ready?
19:46 Three, two, one.
19:47 Move.
19:48 Come on.
19:50 We got to go.
19:51 We got to go.
19:51 Get a good grip.
19:56 Get a good grip.
19:57 We're out in the opening.
19:58 Come on.
19:58 Let's go.
19:58 Push it back.
20:00 Right here.
20:01 Right here.
20:01 Suck him into the floor.
20:02 Right here.
20:02 Right here.
20:05 315 King, we're going to move across the alley right here.
20:08 Our officer's in place for position.
20:09 So we're going to do a two-officer carry.
20:12 We're going to be faster this way, okay?
20:13 We need you to help us.
20:14 We need you to cobble.
20:15 Let's go.
20:16 Moving.
20:17 Come on, Michelle.
20:20 Let's go.
20:20 Moving, moving.
20:24 Come on, Michelle.
20:26 Come on, Michelle.
20:29 Left.
20:30 Go left.
20:30 Go left.
20:30 Almost there, guys.
20:32 Almost there.
20:33 Come on.
20:34 To the right.
20:34 To the right.
20:35 By the patrol car right here.
20:37 Okay.
20:39 Can we go back?
20:40 They're setting up containment.
20:41 We need you to come with me and support one of our snipers in position right now.
20:45 What floor?
20:46 We're going up to the fifth floor.
20:48 Our target building is going to be the three-story at the end of the road with the camel roof.
21:00 You see it?
21:01 Yeah, I do.
21:02 If you can key up the mic and check in, just let them know that we have a sniper in position up here.
21:07 Sniper one will be car A and gas tiger.
21:11 We are set up 50 yards off the one-two corner of the target on the fifth floor of the tower.
21:16 Our entire job is to stay here and gather intelligence for the
21:19 team that is going to end up moving up on him.
21:21 Sniper one, he just threw something out the window.
21:24 Why not take a shot now?
21:27 Well, right now he's not posing a threat to anybody.
21:30 He's just a lone barricaded suspect.
21:32 Even though he already shot someone?
21:34 Yes.
21:35 Suspect surrendered and has moved out to our position.
21:38 Chris, come down the stairs.
21:45 You gotta yell louder.
21:46 Chris, come down the stairs.
21:48 Put your hands behind your head.
21:51 Slowly walk back towards my voice.
21:55 Keep walking.
21:56 If you're doing fine, Chris, keep it up.
21:59 You're doing fine, Chris.
22:00 Keep it up.
22:01 Stop.
22:02 All right, go ahead and handcuff him.
22:03 Let's move in here.
22:10 All right, so Rob's number one.
22:12 Michelle, you're going to be number two.
22:14 All right, just follow behind Rob.
22:15 All right, Sarge, first floor is clear.
22:28 Move up.
22:29 Clear.
22:30 All clear.
22:31 Last room.
22:32 Last room.
22:33 And end scenario, end scenario.
22:36 Good job.
22:36 Let's meet back at the initial jump off location.
22:39 Gosh.
22:43 I'm exhausted.
22:45 This week at SWAT Academy was a truly eye-opening experience.
22:49 Thank you so much to SDPD SWAT for making episodes like this possible
22:53 and for giving me a chance to learn more about the SWAT Academy.
22:56 Thank you so much to the SDPD SWAT Academy for making episodes like this possible
23:00 and for giving me a glimpse into what it takes to be a member of San Diego SWAT.
23:05 And as always, if you're new here, be sure to subscribe so you don't miss the next episode.