By Pat Culverhouse
Officers of the Minden Police Department’s Special Response Team (SRT) cautiously entered hallways, classrooms and assembly areas of J.L Jones Elementary School, checking potential danger points where a shooter might be hiding while planning to attack.
It was part of the SRT’s regular training regimen, and the heavily armed team members left no space unchecked as they scoured the building.
“We have held these training maneuvers at just about every school in Minden and we hope to be able to expand that to others in the parish,” said MPD Assistant Chief Chris Cheatham. Cheatham is the SRT commanding officer and it’s his responsibility to make decisions that could prove critical in dangerous situations.
Cheatham said exercises like the recent J.L. Jones session help provide team information that could prove invaluable if a real situation should occur. It’s important to know the layout of buildings, especially those where there may be large numbers of vulnerable individuals, he said.
“We train in schools and businesses, homes and buildings to understand where a shooter might hide,” he said. “We need to be aware of the possibilities, especially in places where we have school children, customers in a large business or employees in a building.”
SRT members meet for regularly scheduled exercises twice a month, with each session covering at least four hours.
“Our guys train at least eight hours a month to maintain the highest degree of proficiency we can,” Cheatham said. “We want to be prepared for any situation, and work as a team to address any threat.”
Minden’s SRT members are well trained and equipped, and they also have something a little extra that could make a big difference in case of serious injury.
“We have a team member who’s an emergency medical professional. That’s a benefit to us,” Cheatham said.
That member is Reserve Officer Brian Sparks. He has been with Minden Medical Center’s emergency department for 15 years where he is now the Lead Advanced Practice Provider.
Cheatham said the team will continue to hone their skills, conducting drills in a variety of locations and at various times of day and night.
“We never know when or where we may be called, so we’ll train at all hours and at as many locations as we are allowed,” he said.
