Law enforcement relies on specially-trained officers for standoffs

By Riley Funk

Recent standoff situations have emphasized the importance of specialized officers in keeping community members, other first responders and even suspects safe.

The Special Response Team comes in for high-pressure situations to deescalate and resolve the conflict. The unit is a group of 18 officers from both the St. Joseph Police Department and the Buchanan County Sheriff’s Office.

John Olszowka is a commander with the St. Joseph Police Department and works with the SRT unit. He said the group responds when there are major situations in the community.

“Typically we get called out when we’re looking for a guy that’s armed or there’s some kind of major crime that’s still active, a shooting or, God forbid, we ever had one, a school shooting,” Olszowka said.

Each situation is different for standoffs, so there isn’t necessarily a standard perimeter first responders set, according to Olszowka. The key is to create a safe distance between nearby residents and the active situation.

“If you can see what’s going on, you’re too close. That could be 50 feet. It could be 500 yards, depending on the situation. What we really look at is getting everybody out of line of sight in case something were to happen,” Olszowka said.

He said the officers on the team have more enhanced training and more equipment at their disposal.

“Our No. 1 goal, the whole reason our team exists is for community safety. Part of the community is also the bad guy. We do whatever we can to protect everybody, including the suspects, the victims and the community,” Olszowka said.

One of the tools at the disposal of the SRT unit is the armored vehicle, which is also known as a “bearcat.” The primary function of the vehicle is transportation, but it also acts as a shield for officers on scene.

“It’s not armed. It doesn’t have any weapons on it at all,” Olszowka said. “It is just a personnel carrier that has ballistic armor on it. It’s basically made out of ballistic armor. Any time the Special Response Team goes out, we take it.”

It can take a great deal of preparation and focus to resolve these stressful situations, and there are nerves when responding, Olszowka said, but the SRT unit is prepared.

“The success is because of the team aspect. All the team members have to work together toward that common goal (of) no one gets hurt, nobody,” Olszowka said. “Patience goes a long way. We can’t do something to risk somebody’s safety because we want to hurry up, or because we want to go home, or because the street needs to be open so people can go to work.”

Olszowka doesn’t have a problem with people who film or people who are curious about the situation if a standoff arises, but he said he wants folks to remain safe and out of the way so officers can focus on the task at hand.

“It makes our job difficult when we start having to deal with the situation and the public. We like to be able to just focus on dealing with the situation at hand,” he said. “(When) we have to start turning our attention to protecting the public that’s in the area, it draws our attention away and it splits things and makes it more difficult.”

The local SRT unit may also respond to other smaller communities north of the area should other agencies require assistance.