Gilroy
– The Gilroy Police Department’s team of elite officers is one
of the Best in the West, as seen during the annual competition for
SWAT teams, put on by the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office last
Thursday and Friday.
By Lori Stuenkel
Gilroy – The Gilroy Police Department’s team of elite officers is one of the Best in the West, as seen during the annual competition for SWAT teams, put on by the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office last Thursday and Friday.
Gilroy police’s Special Operations Group earned second place out of 22 law enforcement teams – a department best – after two days completing grueling and stressful scenarios, from sniper simulations to hostage rescues and other SWAT-type drills.
Assistant Police Chief Lanny Brown, who attends the competitions with the department’s team each year, said the six officers – Sgt. Kurt Ashley, Pedro Espinoza, Sgt. Greg Flippo, Ray Hernandez, Sgt. Noel Provost, Pat Sullivan and Cpl. Eric Tiner – clearly performed their best last week.
“This year, from the first event that I observed, I could tell that they were on: They were polished, and just a pleasure to watch because they were so good at what they were doing,” said Brown, brimming with pride. “In years past, it’s like they’ve been getting progressively better. They’ve been honing their skills year by year, and then when you come to an event like this, it’s like you have to have an incredible day to place – and they did that.”
The GPD’s performance also garnered its first invitation to the annual World SWAT Competition, only open to 16 teams worldwide.
“That’s an incredible honor,” said Brown.
Officer Sullivan earned high honors individually, receiving the prestigious “Top Gun” award for his performance in three different shooting events. He also received a prize of a rare and collectible firearm.
“That’s an incredible accomplishment, considering the 131 other SWAT officers,” Brown said. “And many of them come from full-time teams – that’s what they do.”
The Best of the West competition, in its 14th year, attracts teams from all over California – including San Francisco and Ventura – and even from the FBI, and outside the state.
The first-place team winner was Sunnyvale’s Department of Public Safety, for the second year in a row, and the third-place team was San Jose Police Department. The second-place Top Gun was a Concord police officer, and third place was a Ventura officer. The individuals are ranked based on their scores in three firearms courses. Other notable Gilroy finishers were Sgt. Provost, in seventh place, and Sgt. Ashley, number 29.
Each six-person team completed seven events in mid-90-degree heat: An endurance course, a sniper course, a two-person assault course, a “jungle trail,” a combined-weapons course, a shotgun course and a teams assault course. In this last course, called the “live-fire house,” teams blew off the door of a building using dynamite and – using live ammunition – went inside to identify and shoot “criminal” targets and rescue a real-weight “hostage” dummy.
Before competing, teams can watch others complete each course but they do not get a practice run.
“You go through basically blind,” Brown said. “It’s your first time, so you’ve got to react, basically, to what’s there.”
Normally, only the first place finisher from respective SWAT competitions like Best of the West are invited to the World SWAT Competition, but this contest is viewed as so elite that Gilroy was invited, as well, Brown said. The GPD team plans to attend the competition, which will be held early next year.
GPD’s Special Operations Group trains two days each month, although it is not a full-time team like in some larger departments.
“These guys spend a lot of their own time getting themselves physically fit,” said Sgt. Kurt Svardal, who also attended the competition. “A lot of it is keeping your skill level up. That’s a perishable skill if you don’t do it every day.”
The competition itself is excellent training, Svardal said, and teams are assessed afterward to keep the courses realistic and create the type of stress a SWAT officer might encounter.
“When you have a SWAT team, it’s very hard to produce real stress,” Svardal said. “You can’t recreate that stress because it’s not real life, but it is good because you do have that individual pressure to do well.”
Brown said GPD begins working toward Best of the West at the start of each year because it gives officers a specific goal to work toward, even if training gets repetitive. As a result, their deployment skills stay sharp.
“It’s not just a game, it’s actually part of their year-long training program,” Brown said. “It’s not for the very few incidents that (SOG goes) out on, it’s the 24/7 benefit that we get day in and day out. … They’re just a calmer and more highly trained officer.”
The competition was sponsored by semiconductor firm Maxim Integrated and held at the Sheriff’s Range in South San Jose, though closed to the public. The Sheriff’s Advisory Board also contributes to the event.
