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Monument DART team includes medics
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| The Monument Police Department’s Direct Action Response Team is prepared to handle situations such as an active shooter.Courtesy photo |
By Nicole Chillino
If an active shooter were to try to take charge of a business, school or other location in Monument, the police department’s direct action response team would be prepared to mediate the situation.
In the past few years, the department has gone from not having a tactical response team to having one that is cutting edge for the state and for this part of the country.
The creation of the team came after a training exercise at Lewis-Palmer High School in 2003 involving an active-shooter scenario clearly illustrated the need for Monument to have a group of officers and medics trained to handle a situation.
“As one of the first responders in the school, I was immediately shot,” said Detective Mark Owens. “I wasn’t real happy about that.”
During the exercise, Owens said he discovered he would have been lying on the floor, bleeding for 90 minutes before the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office SWAT team was on its way to save his life and rescue students.
“That’s a real-life response,” he said. “That’s about what it will take for them to get to the Tri-Lakes community. That is a good response time.”
The Monument Police Department began investigating narcotics and check-fraud crimes approximately 4 years ago, at which time officers were not trained to execute a search warrant safely. So they had to collaborate with the sheriff’s office and find times that worked for both the Monument officers and sheriff’s office to fulfill the warrants, Owens said. The process was time-consuming.
“We want to be prepared to protect our citizens,” Owens said. “The county is not always available.”
About 2 and a half years ago, Owens made a proposal to Monument Police Chief Jake Shirk to create the department’s own tactical team, which was accepted.
Tri-Lakes Monument Fire Protection District Lt. Mike Keough is one of four medically trained personnel from the department who is part of the tactical team.
When Columbine High School was taken over by shooters in 1999, Keough said the responders followed their training. After the incident, the national response demanded the training be different. The training the medics and police had received told them they were supposed to wait outside and not let the bad guys get away. Keough said some of the victims could have been saved if medical care had been provided to them immediately; instead, they bled to death.
Shirk knew about the concept of putting medics with a tactical team, so they were added to Monument’s tactical team, Keough said. The medically trained persons are taught the law enforcement concepts they need to work with the team and respond with the police officers to provide care when needed to hostages, bystanders, police officers and suspects.
“It could take hours to secure the environment, but those patients don’t have hours,” Keough said.
Furthermore, the medics work to prevent injuries. He said part of his job with the team is to look for potential medical problems the officers might encounter. For instance, if the team is standing outside in the cold for 10 hours, Keough and the other medics have to monitor the officers to ensure they are not getting so cold they are endangering their health or their abilities to do their jobs effectively.
“We have the best relationship between the police department and fire department that I’ve ever heard of,” Keough said. The relationship makes working closely together possible.
In the past few years, the department has gone from not having a tactical response team to having one that is cutting edge for the state and for this part of the country.
The creation of the team came after a training exercise at Lewis-Palmer High School in 2003 involving an active-shooter scenario clearly illustrated the need for Monument to have a group of officers and medics trained to handle a situation.
“As one of the first responders in the school, I was immediately shot,” said Detective Mark Owens. “I wasn’t real happy about that.”
During the exercise, Owens said he discovered he would have been lying on the floor, bleeding for 90 minutes before the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office SWAT team was on its way to save his life and rescue students.
“That’s a real-life response,” he said. “That’s about what it will take for them to get to the Tri-Lakes community. That is a good response time.”
The Monument Police Department began investigating narcotics and check-fraud crimes approximately 4 years ago, at which time officers were not trained to execute a search warrant safely. So they had to collaborate with the sheriff’s office and find times that worked for both the Monument officers and sheriff’s office to fulfill the warrants, Owens said. The process was time-consuming.
“We want to be prepared to protect our citizens,” Owens said. “The county is not always available.”
About 2 and a half years ago, Owens made a proposal to Monument Police Chief Jake Shirk to create the department’s own tactical team, which was accepted.
Tri-Lakes Monument Fire Protection District Lt. Mike Keough is one of four medically trained personnel from the department who is part of the tactical team.
When Columbine High School was taken over by shooters in 1999, Keough said the responders followed their training. After the incident, the national response demanded the training be different. The training the medics and police had received told them they were supposed to wait outside and not let the bad guys get away. Keough said some of the victims could have been saved if medical care had been provided to them immediately; instead, they bled to death.
Shirk knew about the concept of putting medics with a tactical team, so they were added to Monument’s tactical team, Keough said. The medically trained persons are taught the law enforcement concepts they need to work with the team and respond with the police officers to provide care when needed to hostages, bystanders, police officers and suspects.
“It could take hours to secure the environment, but those patients don’t have hours,” Keough said.
Furthermore, the medics work to prevent injuries. He said part of his job with the team is to look for potential medical problems the officers might encounter. For instance, if the team is standing outside in the cold for 10 hours, Keough and the other medics have to monitor the officers to ensure they are not getting so cold they are endangering their health or their abilities to do their jobs effectively.
“We have the best relationship between the police department and fire department that I’ve ever heard of,” Keough said. The relationship makes working closely together possible.
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