IF HE SHOULDERS THE WEAPON AGAIN, YOU ARE CLEARED TO TAKE HIM OUT," CAME THE COMMAND OVER THE RADIO.

The marksman prepared to fire. At the scene of an intense standoff, time stood still for Okaloosa County sheriff's deputies stationed at the foot of the Destin Bridge. For six hours, repeated orders from the deputies for the gunman to drop his weapon had been ignored. The man had led authorities on a chase after being reported by Eglin Air Force Base to the sheriff's office earlier that warm August morning. A few more agonizing seconds ticked away. Suddenly, a single shot rang out. The man was down - no longer a threat. The man's story doesn't end there, however. That same afternoon, David Dean Hammer was still alive, and facing charges, after being treated and released from Fort Walton Beach Medical Center. It wasn't modern medical science that allowed Hammer to escape serious injury or death. Rather, it was the actions of a specially trained group of deputies, one of whom shot him with beanbag rounds fired from a less lethal type of weapon. While clearance had been authorized for lethal force, the team's discipline and professionalism enabled it to end the standoff through non-lethal means when Deputy Royce Hanson fired the beanbag rounds.

Cloaked in modern weaponry, protective armor and sophisticated communications, and armed with highly refined tactical skills, members of the Okaloosa Sheriff's Office Special Response Team (SRT) voluntarily place themselves at death's door to uphold the law. Their dangerous mission requires dedicated performers willing to be on call 24 hours a day. There is no additional financial reward for being a member of the SRT. The reward is being part of an elite team of 16 volunteers who work at the forefront of incidents involving barricaded suspects, hostage situations and high-risk warrant services.

Cpl. Ted Cason is the SRT commander, a charter member of the team since its creation in 1997. He says that each situation requiring a "call-out" is unique - the team never knows what it is going to face. The situation could involve chemical or biological agents, as in one case in December 2003.

In that call-out, an eccentric and belligerent man with a doctorate in chemistry was being served a warrant in Fort Walton Beach, and the SRT was called out to respond. "He threatened to use potassium cyanide on himself," Cason recalls. "He talked to our negotiators, but he frustrated them. " During these negotiations, the team's medic and the Emergency Medical Services' hazardous-materials team quickly located an antidote in case the man followed through on his suicide threat.

With negotiations stalemated, the team forcibly entered the residence, at which time the man ingested the poison. Because of the presence of hazardous materials and the tear gas used to enter the home, the team immediately evacuated the man from the environment.

"We had to decontaminate him,"says Cason.

The non-responsive man was placed into an ambulance, and the team administered the antidote. "All of a sudden, he sat right up and was conscious and alert," recalls Cason. "The closest thing to a WMD (weapons of mass destruction) incident as we have ever had."

Cason is one of four veterans of the original team and knows intimately the type of training it takes for a member to be part of the team. A person's rank is subordinate to tactical knowledge and leadership, accord ing to Cason. Therefore, rank is not used when the team is deployed.

To be ready for a variety of scenarios, members of the SRT undergo a long and rigorous screening and training regimen to prepare for the most demanding situations. Sheriff Charlie Morris's criteria for participating on the team is straightforward: Each member must be "a highly motivated deputy sheriff in good standing." Indeed, it takes a deep sense of motivation to endure the training regimen in assault techniques, which includes forced entry, rappelling and amphibious tactics.

"First, they must have completed their first year probation with the agency," says Cason. "They submit a letter of intention to me with the approval of their supervisor. At that point we hold a physical tryout, consisting of push-ups, sit-ups, running, obstacle course, pistol qualification course, stress fire qualification course and, finally, an oral board made up of team members."

Surprisingly, for most applicants the oral test is the toughest. "Of all of those listed, the hardest is the oral board," Cason notes. But it doesn't end there. "Applicants are also screened based on their attitude, work ethic, uniform appearance and recommendations from first-line supervision. 

After all of that, they serve in the team for a full year under a probationary status. It is not until after they successfully complete that year that they are considered an operator. The probationary period is when we usually lose applicants."

Factors affecting team attrition include a lack of dedication, age restrictions and especially injuries, according to Cason. "We have injured many in training. Everyone on the team has been injured in one way or another during training. The job is a dangerous one, and we must train to the standard in which we are expected to operate, which all members accept. We fortunately have only encountered minor injuries in operations, the worst being broken fingers. I believe this is due in great part to the rigorous training these men endure."

While the physical and mental demands would appear to favor younger members, surprisingly, team members' ages are fairly evenly distributed between 26 and 46. Cason believes that the younger members need a year or two of law enforcement experience before applying for the team. But the older members hold their own, according to Cason. "The older members, believe it or not, usually beat the younger members in tasks ranging from shooting to physical training."

A typical training day lasts 12-15 hours every three weeks. While Cason would like more training opportunities, he recognizes these volunteers have regular roles as community officers, traffic officers, investigators and other duties that demand their time.

Crammed into a training day are hours spent at a firing range in Crestview, where the team practices marksmanship and works closely to ensure that adequate fire power can be employed when needed. Upwards of 8,000 rounds of 9mm ammunition can be fired in a few hours, according to the team's scout, Mike Card.

As scout, Card's role on the team is to assess its objectives in preparation for a forced entry. He diagrams the interior of the building so the team can make sure it has all possible threat areas covered upon entry. The team's marksmanship training at the firing range is oriented toward that type of threat scenario. While accuracy is important, emphasis is placed on being able to react quickly and cover for each other during reloads or gun malfunctions.

Cason reinforces this continuously like a drill sergeant, shouting a cadence, "New, back, out, in, forward!" This is the sequence of actions that team members perform as they reload another magazine into their weapon, all the while keeping the target in sight and covering for teammates. Cason emphasizes the concept of "muscle memory" so that team members condition themselves to react almost instinctively - a critical factor when life or death is measured in split seconds.

While most members of the team move quickly and must fire on the run, two members constantly hone their marksmanship skills in the stillness of a heartbeat. Snipers practice long-distance shooting from areas of camouflaged concealment. Their work is of more of a technical nature, according to Cason, as they study the types of glass and material that their rounds must encounter. They also benefit from working with ex-military snipers to refine their skills.

During training sessions, new recruits are directly supervised under the eye of experienced team members. Everything they do is carefully scrutinized. To ensure that their actions are easily assessed, the new recruits wear white T-shirts and special helmets.

"We don't do that to humiliate them; we do it for safety so that we can easily monitor them," says Cason. He notes that when the new recruits are not actively engaged in a training task, they are doing much of the setup work for the training sessions or are performing calisthenics.

The team's arsenal is diverse, precise and sophisticated, with the Heckler & Koch MP5 and UMP40 submachine guns being the main assault weapons. But beyond that, the team prefers to hold their cards close. "We are well outfitted," say Cason. However, he emphasizes that in a crisis where deadly force is possible, it is a psychological edge for the target to wonder what type of firepower he or she is facing.

"The mystery of it is very effective," says Cason.

At an undisclosed location on Okaloosa Island, the team practices "CQB," or close-quarter battle. In this exercise, they enter a building and perform room-toroom clearing operations, in which they attempt to engage a person hiding or wait- I ing to ambush the team - not unlike the' delicate and dangerous operations the u.s. military performs in Iraq and Afghanistan, where danger lurks in every corner. Cason and Assistant Team Leader Tony Wasden critique each and every move, often demonstrating the fatal consequences of the slightest error. The critiques are harsh and unapologetic

The geography of Okaloosa County, with its bays, lakes, bayous and coastal region, requires the team to be able to contend with situations in a maritime setting. As part of their training, members practice approaching targets stealthily from the water. "We are very proficient at waterborne deployments," says Cason.

While the team may be homegrown, its training partnerships allow it to absorb best practices from other units. The team has trained with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Los Angeles Sheriff's Office Special Weapons Team, the Florida SWAT Association, Heckler & Koch Training, Glock Training, the Florida Marine Patrol and various other state, government and local agencies. Although these training partnerships have been in existence for some time, they were reinforced after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Working with other agencies for training and operational matters has become the task of the sheriff's director of special operations and homeland security, Maj. Michael Coup. The position evolved in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks to facilitate communications, coordination, training and operations amongst local, state and federal law enforcement agencies. According to Major Coup, "the position requires participation in our local Domestic Security Task Force (one of seven in Florida), the state Domestic Security Executive Board and state funding conference's."

The team enjoys a good relationship with the military bases in the area, according to Coup. "We enjoy a close working relationship with both Eglin Air Force Base and Hurlburt Field," he notes. "Our military partners, upon approval, allow us to utilize some of their most sophisticated equipment. Searching for a lost child, water rescues and hunting a dangerous felon are a few examples where night vision and other sensors are utilized." With military approval, even aircraft can be redirected to assist in some cases, he says.

Coup's role during a call-out is to help coordinate the actions between supporting elements and agencies. "He keeps the master plan," according to Cason. Coordination between the Crisis Negotiation Unit (CNU), SRT, perimeter patrols and other supporting elements are vital to success.

In October 2004, that level of cooperation was put into action. Faced with an armed and suicidal fugitive on the loose in the Eglin Reservation, Cason's team was able to link up with an airborne AC-130U gunship. Doing so required some ingenuity. "We were able to secure a Vietnam-era hand-held radio and establish communications," Cason recalls. "1 was able to link up with them. They did an outstanding job." The aircraft's sophisticated sensors were able to detect the fugitive and aid the team in apprehending him.

Since the sheriff's office doesn't own any aircraft, it must rely on this type of assistance. "We would love to have a helicopter," says Cason. "However, the cost to the taxpayers is enormous. We are lucky in the sense that we are next to two of the Air Force's most progressive bases. The Air Force,. at the request of the sheriff, will give aerial observation assistance as needed in tactical or search-and-rescue operations. Operationally, we also have used state Game and Fish aircraft for deployment and armed cover purposes."

For all its training and weaponry, the SRT's preference in a crisis situation is for a peaceful resolution that avoids bloodshed. The job of negotiating a peaceful, non-violent resolution belongs to the CNU, which deploys with the SRT to all call-outs. The lO-member CNU's main responsibility is to negotiate, or "talk," barricaded individuals out of the situation and settle the problem peacefully. According to Sheriff Morris, "crisis negotiation complements the SRT team, providing intelligence, expertise and another dimension to solving a high-risk situation." The CNU team is trained the same as the SRT members, according to Morris, but members also must complete a 40-hour course in basic hostage negotiations.

First and foremost, the CNU attempts to establish communication with the barricaded person by phone, verbal conversation or face-to-face interaction. It will exhaust all avenues peacefully to subdue the barricaded individual before the SRT is required to use any kind of force.

If negotiations fail, the team can employ non-lethal means to resolve a situation. "We were the first in the agency to be trained on and deploy less lethal munitions such as beanbag impact rounds, riot control devices and Tasers," says Cason. "Generally, when the SRT is used, lethal force is what is being considered - but less lethal options are always deployed as well."

Should non-lethal means be impractical or unavailable, a situation may require the SRT to employ its lethal capabilities. In that event, two more members of the team are trained to bring on-scene emergency medical treatment. Paramedics Wally Abort and Kenneth Worley of the Okaloosa County Emergency Management office are appointed as special deputies by the sheriff and support the emergency medical needs of the team.

Cason emphasizes that the men follow the same training as other SRT members in addition to their medical training. "Both of these medics do everything that an operator trains on, qualifies in or endures. These men usually operate with their respective teams, to include the actual building entry. Both men are fully trained on all aspects of the team, as well as all organic weapons and equipment." The paramedics are trained in a special federal tactical medics course called Counter Narcotics Tactical Operations Medical Support, a 58-hour, entry-level training program for medical personnel who support tactical law enforcement units engaged in anti-drug activities.

Cason estimates that in the eight years of the team's existence, it has responded to about 100 call-outs. With each one, a new scenario unfolds, fraught with intensity, ambiguity and lives placed on the line. This requires a highly trained group that is not only disciplined, but also flexible. "Flexibility is one of the hardest things we had to teach our guys," notes Cason. "Every call-out is different."

Nevertheless, members must be ready to spring into action instantly. As Cason notes, when the signal to go is given, "the train is moving out." Occasionally, there are anecdotal moments arising from training and incidents. In one situation, the first team member out of the van stumbled and fell to the ground. His training told him to freeze in position and let the other team members move forward unimpeded, rather than risk trying to get up and make others falter. With a big smile, Cason adds, "Since the rest of the team trampled over him, he earned the nickname 'Doormat. '"

To this unique team's credit, the SRT has never fired a lethal round in its eight years of existence. As a matter of fact, the beanbag round fired in 2003 was the only time a shot has been fired. It is a record of success that Cason is proud of. By having a trained and disciplined team, lethal force is the last resort.

Cason acknowledges while his team is capable of applying lethal force, there are myriad ways to end conflicts peacefully. "There are a million different ways to skin the cat," says Cason. "Our goal is to save lives."

The Team

Author with Cpl Cason

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