LAKESIDE - The Northwest Montana Regional SWAT Team is made up of 24 members from across different law enforcement agencies in Western Montana.
When it comes to saving a victim’s life in a hostage situation, the team knows that proper training is their best weapon.
“We get to practice live breaching which we just don’t get to do that a lot on an actual structure. We have our own props for that but it’s just not the same,” said Flathead County Undersheriff Wayne DuBois.
DuBois said practicing coordinated entries into a structure known as “live breaching,” is critical in SWAT training.
“Being able to practice that on a live location, a coordination of that with actual breaching is pretty much as close as you can get to doing it for real," he explained.
DuBois said the Northwest Montana Regional SWAT Team responds to two incidents per month on average.
“You know you do the best you can to stay safe, but we understand when it’s a hostage situation there’s a very real possibility we can get injured in the process, so you always fall back to your training, and so that’s why we do this,” said DuBois.
He said they travel all over Western Montana when called upon.
“We’re going to Sanders County, you know Lincoln County. We’ve gone to all these places. We go down to Missoula County often, Ravalli County, so that’s common," DuBois told MTN News.
DuBois said a focus of their training is de-escalation tactics — getting a suspect to voluntarily comply with SWAT team negotiators.
“What we hope to do is talk with them, get them to calm down, be able to think more rationally," DuBois explained. "I guess effectively become partners with them to get them to release the hostages or surrender.”
He said being ready to serve is not possible without community members donating property or land for them to train.
“Thankful that we have people in the community that are willing to donate locations like this, it’s really invaluable what it adds to the training for these officers you know who are out there basically putting it on the line for their communities, so we appreciate it," DuBois said.
People who would like to donate property for SWAT training can contact Undersheriff DuBois at wdubois@flathead.mt.gov.
