This is What Happens at Basic Training for SWAT in West Jordan

Every September, two dozen officers can earn a spot in the Basic Tactical Officer Course (BTOC) taught in West Jordan. This grueling six-day program sometimes stretches for 18 hours a day and pushes students to show their best physical and mental fitness. Every hour is filled with training, from learning scouting techniques and non-lethal de-escalation, to running with ballistic shields and battering rams or carrying a 180-lb. victim dummy.

Students come from local and reservation law enforcement agencies across Utah, and from Colorado, Wyoming, Nevada, North Dakota, and as far as Brazil. Many departments require basic training before they can step into tactical roles. West Jordan Police Department requires all their new Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) officers to attend.

"Most days start at 5 or 5:30 in the morning," said Sgt. Brian McElreath, West Jordan's SWAT Team Leader. "They've got to be together. They've got to travel as a team. They have to be back and be ready to go for the next morning as a team."

West Jordan Police Department (WJPD) SWAT and Utah Department of Public Safety (DPS) form the Joint Special Operations Group (JSOG). Together, they teach BTOC classes.

During the single week, they cover these topics, and more:

• Situation observation and scouting.

• How to enter a building, bus, home through doors, windows, garage doors, etc.

• How to communicate what they see to the rest of the team.

• How to make a plan with the team.

• Learn how to perform their role on a team.

• How to perform rescues of victims and fellow officers in dangerous situations.

• Various types of armor, such as ballistic blankets, shields, and vehicle armor.

• Using multiple shields as a team.

• Using chemical agents and non-lethal methods to defuse a situation.

• Learning how to use technology, like drones, night and thermal vision, and robots.

• Open field and long range formations, especially for rural agencies.

• Offloading from a helicopter.

• Crisis decision making.

• State statutes and Constitutional policies.

• How to stay composed and focused through high-stakes situations.

The most important training they receive is rapid and crisis response and hostage rescue.

"Everything that we do leads up to hostage rescue," McElreath said. "That's the day you have to be the sharpest. That's the day that you want to make sure you've done all the training, that you can think on your feet. Those are the days big decisions are made in a split second and are life-changing for multiple people."

A SWAT team is called in for high-risk, pre-planned, active crime operations. They are defusers, communicators, and tactical professionals, focused on peaceful outcomes, as much as possible.

"Preserving life is really what the team is all about," McElreath said.

BTOC is only the start of West Jordan SWAT training. Officers train weekly to prepare for any situation.

"When the time comes, you want the best trained, best prepared officers," McElreath said. "You want somebody that's going to be able to make those split-second decisions in the unfolding chaos."

While we all wish to never be in a situation that would require a SWAT team, "Once you need it, you want it to be the best that it can be," he said.

For more than 20 years, WJPD and DPS have taught this highly sought-after program as a first step toward the life of a tactical professional. It is the start of a career built on being, as McElreath put it, being the "sharpest, best trained and best prepared officers."