Atterbury hosts SWAT challenge

Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Matt Scotten | Law enforcement professionals from the Hamilton County, Ind. SWAT team test their tactical skills at the 13th Annual Indiana SWAT Challenge at Atterbury Sept. 4.  

EDINBURGH, IN, UNITED STATES

09.05.2014

Story by Sgt. 1st Class Matt Scotten 

Camp Atterbury Indiana

EDINBURGH, Ind. - Atterbury hosted the 13th Annual Indiana SWAT Challenge Sept. 3-5, put together by the Delaware County Emergency Response Team.

The event has been held in Muncie, Ind., for the last several years, but was moved to Camp Atterbury this year because of the installation’s wide array training facilities.

“It’s been fantastic training here,” said Jeff Stanley, vice president, Indiana SWAT Challenge. “We couldn’t ask for more hospitality, and the ranges here offer a wide variety of training opportunities for law enforcement.”

With the enhanced training opportunities offered in this year’s challenge by moving the event to Atterbury, the challenge was able to attract law enforcement agencies from all over the country, for a total of 13 competing agencies.

Teams competed in several events, to include officer down and hostage rescue scenarios, rappelling operations, building searches, sniper competition and more. For some law enforcement professionals, however, the most important benefits of participating in the challenge were intangible.

“We build a lot of communication skills coming down here because we get to train together in many kinds of scenarios that we might get to train with in schools and such, but not together as a team,” said Lt. Matt Campbell, Rochester City Police SWAT. “On top of that, we have been able to spend a lot of time talking with other agencies here. We’ve even been running around with a team from Idaho that came this year for the competition. They are a different kind of agency than we are, and so getting to talk tactics with other teams is a huge benefit for us.”

At the end of the competition, the team from Lafayette Police Department took home 1st place, just barely edging out Idaho National Laboratory’s team for the win. The advantage of having nearly 30,000 acres of training areas and ranges at their disposal at Atterbury this year made for a very diverse competition comprised of agencies from all over the nation, Atterbury looks forward to facilitating the challenge again next year, as well as the training needs of all military and law enforcement professionals abroad.

• Date Taken: 09.05.2014
• Date Posted: 09.08.2014 15:17
• Story ID: 141452
• Location: EDINBURGH, IN, US
• Hometown: IDAHO FALLS, ID, US
• Hometown: MUNCIE, IN, US
• Hometown: NOBLESVILLE, IN, US
• Hometown: ROCHESTER, IN, US