Familiarity with liability issues regarding tactical units is essential for all levels of police management. Legal topics covered in the course include torts (negligence, wrongful death, intentional torts, civil rights), monetary damages, attorney’s fees, qualified immunity in cases involving task forces, search warrants, non-compliance with knock and announce, use of diversionary devices, property damage during execution of search warrants, use of police dogs, lethal or less-lethal use of force and multi-jurisdictional task forces and civil liability..

This course is designed for command staff and police administrators assigned the responsibility of developing department policies, procedures and the training programs that support them. This course will provide an in-depth examination of terrorism tactics and the countermeasures used to maintain homeland security by both patrol and SWAT personnel. Topics include an overview of terrorist homicide bombings (international and domestic), explosive devices and blast dynamics, tactical intervention and interdiction team concepts, tactical precision long rifleman/observer concepts, a legal review, use-of-force policies and training issues.

This seminar course is designed for police supervisory, command and executive personnel who are responsible for the resolution of law enforcement-related critical incidents. Topics to be covered include lessons learned from previous critical incidents, the law enforcement mission, operational planning, contingency planning, incident command system, tactical concepts and principles of command and control. Attendees will participate in various critical incident tabletop exercises.

Faced with the prospect of a critical incident that surpasses the resources of first responders, many smaller agencies find that their best alternative is to pool resources and form a part-time multi-jurisdictional SWAT team. For teams to function properly, appropriate policies and procedures need to be in place to allow them to respond in a safe and orderly manner. This seminar course will assist potential teams in selecting team members and command staff, training issues, financing and equipment, SWAT response, discipline and use-of-force issues and growing the team.

Incident commanders, tactical commanders and team members, crisis negotiation team (CNT) supervisors, CNT members and patrol supervisors are encouraged to attend this seminar, which will detail how to set up a command post when responding to a critical incident. Topics to be covered include incident and tactical command of a critical incident, the tactical operations center (TOC) concept, information collection and dissemination methods and the latest computer technology and software to manage a major violent critical incident.

This seminar will familiarize patrol supervisors with response procedures designed to support the use of SWAT teams during high-risk situations. Information covered in this course will include initial response, assessment and containment of the situation, command protocol, command post operations and essential elements of intelligence gathering. Other topics include containment and perimeter issues, less-lethal weapons options, response to immediate deployment situations and force options utilized by SWAT.

Risk Management is a two-day course designed to help team commanders and trainers recognize and mitigate training and operational risks inherent to tactical unit performance. The training is designed around lectures and practical exercises in which class members assess their training events and operational plans against the need for high-risk activities, using the format of identifiable risk from past occurrences and future risk given evolution in suspects' tactics. Upon completion of the course, the student will be able to do written risk assessments, institute risk controls and write/conduct safety briefings to ensure that training and operational events are conducted in the safest manner possible.

This course is designed to expose police supervisors to contemporary SWAT issues, tactics and procedures. Topics include major incident debriefs; leadership issues; justifying SWAT; the use of SWAT teams; SWAT and the media; selection and training of supervisors and team members; weapons and equipment selection; legal issues overview; critical incident management; barricade, hostage and suicide-by-cop procedures; warrant service planning; and response to active shooter situations. Supervisors will benefit from the extensive range of topics covered and the application of new skills in a real-time training scenario on the final day of the course.