Description

In September of 2021 a suspect involved in a carjacking and attempted homicide led police in a vehicle pursuit that ended in a car crash in Farmington Utah. The suspect fled on foot across Interstate 15 into a residential neighborhood prompting patrol officers to establish a perimeter and begin a search with a K9 unit. During the search a single gunshot was heard, South Davis Metropolitan SWAT and North Davis Metropolitan SWAT were both activated to conduct a house -to-house search. Operators discovered a bullet hole in a residence window, and shortly after, a male exited nearby home in a vehicle. He was stopped and informed operators that his family was being held hostage and that the suspect had sent him to check for police. As operators moved toward the residence, a juvenile female escaped through a window. Debriefing the father and daughter, it became clear that three more hostages remained inside the home with an armed suspect. Negotiated side and a handgun was recovered next to his body. My guest today is Lieutenant Andrew Smith. Andrew began his law enforcement career with the Utah Highway Patrol in 2008. In 2011, he left the highway and began working for the West Bountiful Police Department. He joined the South Davis Metropolitan SWAT team in 2012 and eventually moved to the Bountiful City Police Department in 2013, where he worked his way through various assignments and promoted to the rank of lieutenant and team commander of the South Davis Metropolitan SWAT team. Anders held numerous leadership positions in the department, including FTO, lead scout, entry team member, and assistant team leader, and is currently the South Davis Metropolitan SWAT team commander. He’s been honored with numerous unit citations as a member of the police department and SWAT team, including his involvement in two hostage rescue operations and two Bountiful City Police Department chief stars, one of which was for his response to an active shooter at a local junior high.

Contact Info

Lt Andrew Smith – asmith@bountiful.gov

Books

Legacy by James Kerr – ISBN-13 – 978-1472103536

Description

My guest today is Dr. Jenny Prohaska, a clinical psychologist who has spent her career on the front lines of trauma and high-stakes performance. Jenny trained in neuro -rehabilitation psychology at the University of Kansas Medical Center, working with patients and staff in trauma, ICU, and burn units, where she built her expertise in how the brain and body adapt to extreme stress. For more than a decade, Jenny has brought that expertise into policing and tactical operations. She’s force science certified and consults on more than 30 officer -involved shootings a year, as well as hundreds of other critical incidents. Jenny’s conducted thousands of pre-hire psychological evaluations, giving her deep expertise in what makes officers and teams thrive or deteriorate under pressure. She’s also built and trained more than two dozen peer support teams across the country and today consults for more than 50 public safety agencies. Jenny’s also a sought-after speaker for national organizations. She’s a founder of tactical longevity, a first -of -its -kind, pre-incident anti -fragility training framework designed to prepare officers and tactical teams to withstand the cumulative stress of their job. I’m excited to talk to Jenny because I’ve been a fan of her work for a number of years, and I believe that antifragility and prehabilitation programs promoting this concept of tactical longevity and talking about it and teaching.

Links

Tactical Longevity | Anti-Fragility Training

Books

What Happened to You? Bruce D. Perry and Oprah Winfrey – ISBN-13 – 978-1250223180

Description

On October 12th, 2020, Bakersfield police responded to a hospital on a domestic violence call to a female who had been hit in the head with a hammer by her ex-husband. When patrol officers arrived at the suspect’s house, the male suspect exited the home, screaming at police and threw an improvised explosive device at officers. Negotiations with the suspect began, who initially appeared to be negotiating in good faith, But after two hours, it became apparent the suspect was not going to comply, and the Bakersfield Special Operations Group was activated. In the ensuing 12 -hour standoff, the team became aware that the suspect had his four-year-old son with him and was an Army combat veteran who had explosive devices in the home. With me today are Captain Ted King and Sergeant Travis Harless from Bakersfield Police to discuss the case.

Description

My guest today is Patrick Van Horne. Patrick is the co- author of Left Of Bang: How the Marine Corps combat hunter program can save your life. He is also the co-founder of the CP journal where he supports clients in preventing, preparing for, and proactively responding to disasters, disruptions and acts of violence. After starting his career is an infantry officer in the Marine Corps following the September 11 attacks, Patrick has supported public and private sector organizations in disaster, preparedness and violence prevention initiative as an entrepreneur, consultant, local emergency manager and volunteer for over 20 years. Patrick’s book Left Of Bang described an innovative program that taught deploying marines how to proactively recognize threats, assess human behavior and gain an advantage over the nation’s adversary. This approach has since been adopted by organizations around the world to prepare for an uncertain future, prevent violence, enhance healthcare delivery, focus cyber security operations, tailor educational programs and improve decision-making.

Links

Homepage: www.cp-journal.com

The Evolution of Left of Bang (this article shows how the topic/idea has grown and expanded since the book was published).

  The Tactical Analysis Course (this is the overview page of the video-based course of the behaviors and approach written about in the book). 

Books

Mastery – Robert Greene – ISBN-13: ‎ 978-1101601020

The Warrior Ethos- Stephen Pressfield – ISBN-13: ‎ 978-1936891009

Description

On October 27 2018 a lone gunman entered the tree of life synagogue in Pittsburgh PA with the intent of killing anyone he could. Tree of Life was the home to three different congregations, tree of life, new light, and dor haddash, all of which were preparing for or having their normal shabbat services. What followed was the deadliest attack on the Jewish Community in American history. 11 innocent people were killed and a further 6 were injured. This attack is the subject of our documentary called Confronting Hate where we dealt with the attack and aftermath in detail. However, we wanted to make a more traditional episode of The Debrief to cover the team’s lessons learned from the event and their advice to other units. In this episode we will hear from several of the responding members of Pittsburgh SWAT. As usual we will not mention the shooters name or discuss his agenda because we are hoping time will erase him and the hate he hoped to propagate.

Description

On Friday May 17 2024 the Surprise Arizona Police department received a call that a suspect had broken into his ex-girlfriend’s home and taken her and their 7-month-old child hostage. The suspect told her that he planned to kill her and the baby and eventually killed her dog. She eventually convinced the suspect to let her go outside and fled to local construction workers who called the Surprise police. When police arrived on scene, they found the suspect shooting out the front of the house into neighboring homes. The decision was made to conduct a high-risk entry to rescue the child. What ensued was a textbook hostage rescue by members of the Surprise SWAT team augmented by patrol officers who entered the home and rescued the child getting him to medical attention and saving his life. The team, having rescued the baby, then pulled out of the home leaving the suspect barricaded in a back bedroom. The suspect eventually lit the house on fire before committing suicide. My guests today are Officer Ryan Scott and Officer Travis Karpuleon from Surprise PD who were both part of the team that rescued the baby.

Resources

Critical Incident Debrief 5.17.2024

Description

On this episode of The Debrief we are going to be looking at Post Traumatic Stress and Post Traumatic Growth. These are two topics that I am extremely passionate about because, as you might imagine, each incident we cover on The Debrief has had a profound effect on everyone involved. Over the years that I have been working with teams and the years I have hosted this show I have seen people destroyed by their experiences. Yet I have also seen others use the trauma they endured to build a stronger, happier and more purposeful version of themselves.

Although I have certainly seen patterns, I have always wondered what separated these two groups of people, which is why I wanted to have this discussion on Post Traumatic Growth. Simply put, there is a LOT we can do to prepare for and respond to traumatic incidents that will reduce the fallout to those involved.

All of my guests today have a different perspective on Post Traumatic Growth. Dr. Richard Tedeschi is the world’s foremost authority on Post Traumatic Growth and literally coined the expression. His work forms the foundation for most PTG programs. Josh Goldberg is the CEO of Boulder Crest Foundation, a nonprofit whose Warrior Path and Struggle Well programs have reached over 100,000 people. And finally, Chief Chad Kasmar is the current Chief of Police in Tucson, Arizona. Following the suicide of a friend and former fellow officer, Chad has led a revolution in the way his city prepares and supports their staff for traumatic incidents. He has a truly unique perspective on the implementation of these types of programs.

I hope you enjoy this deep dive into Post Traumatic Growth and that this episode inspires you and your agencies to improve on the way we prepare and treat our warriors and first responders.

Guests

Dr. Richard Tedeschi – Clinical psychologist and researcher who coined the term “Post Traumatic Growth.” His work laid the foundation for PTG research and training programs worldwide.

Josh Goldberg – CEO of Boulder Crest Foundation, leading the development of the Warrior PATHH and Struggle Well programs for military and first responder communities.

Chief Chad Kasmar – Chief of Police in Tucson, Arizona, who has pioneered trauma-preparation and support initiatives in his department following personal loss and professional insight.

Resources

Boulder Crest Foundation – www.bouldercrest.org
Boulder Crest: Reborn – YouTube

Description

On the 15th of December 2014, a terrorist took over the Lindt Chocolate café in Martin Place, in the heart of Sydney, Australia, holding 18 customers and staff hostage, creating a siege that would last for over 16 hours. Although numerous hostages escaped, by the time the event concluded, two innocent people were dead, and four others were injured.

For ten years, this incident was suppressed under a government-mandated gag order. This prevented members of the New South Wales Police Tactical Operations Unit (TOU) from even publicly revealing their names. As a result, despite a detailed and scathing coroner’s inquest report—the largest and most expensive in Australian history—there has been very little discussion about what actually happened that night, particularly from a tactical perspective.

In keeping with the standard policy of The Debrief, we will not be discussing the name, objectives, or affiliations of the terrorist in the hope that time will erase his memory. We will, of course, be discussing the names of the team, and in this case, hostages, because they are heroes and need to be remembered. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Ben Besant.

Guests

Ben Besant, identified as ‘Officer A’ in the coroner’s report, was the lead member of the Alpha Team during the intervention and the officer who engaged and killed the terrorist. He is the author of Tiger! Tiger! Tiger!, a book that details not only what happened that night but also chronicles his personal battle to recover his mental health following the Lindt Café siege.

Resources

Ben Besant – https://tigertigertigerbook.com/
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100086482286065#
Resolute Ready – https://resoluteready.com/
Official Report – https://coroners.nsw.gov.au/documents/findings/2017/lindt_cafe_findings-and-recommendations.pdf

Introduction

On May 24, 2022, an active shooter took the lives of 19 children and two staff members and physically and mentally injured the survivors, their families, staff, teachers, and the broader community in Uvalde, Texas. At the request of Uvalde’s leadership, the U.S. Department of Justice established the Critical Incident Review (CIR) to conduct an independent, objective assessment of what happened that day and assess the systems in place in the weeks leading up to May 24. The goal of the episode is to provide information to those most affected by the tragedy and to build knowledge regarding how to best respond to incidents of mass violence. This panel will provide an overview of the incident and present observations and recommendations from the DOJ report in the areas of tactics, leadership, and incident command.

Guests

Nazmia E.A. Comrie is a sociologist (policing assistance and reform) at the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office). She provides leadership for the development, implementation, and delivery of technical assistance efforts to state, local, tribal, campus, and territorial law enforcement agencies across the country as the program manager for the Collaborative Reform Initiative (CRI) Technical Assistance Center and CRI: Critical Response programs. Nazmia has more than 13 years of experience in managing programs in the areas of police reform, mass demonstrations, agency safety and wellness, and combating human trafficking, hate crimes, and interpersonal violence. To date, Nazmia has authored and co-authored a number of publications relevant to her areas of expertise and the criminal justice field as a whole, including the “Critical Incident Review: Active Shooter at Robb Elementary School” and “Building Stronger, Safer Communities: A guide for law enforcement and community partners to prevent and respond to hate crimes.” In addition, Nazmia was a significant contributor to the “After-Action Assessment of the Police Response to the August 2014 Demonstrations in Ferguson, Missouri” report that was released in 2015. Nazmia received her bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Rochester and her master’s degree in criminal justice from University at Albany, where she worked on research involving homicides, wrongful convictions, community policing, and gangs.

Frank G. Fernandez is currently the president of Blueprints 4 Safety (B4S) Strategies Group LLC; a security and risk assessment consulting firm specializing in vulnerability assessments, strategic planning, and best practice policing/public safety strategic development. Aside from his current engagement in the private sector, Fernandez possesses extensive executive-level government and law enforcement experience in the Miami metropolitan area, as well as adjunct faculty experience in the Miami-Dade academic arena. During his 25 years of service in the law enforcement field, Fernandez’s experience includes top leadership positions such as deputy chief of police and chief of operations for the Miami Police Department (MPD), as well as key positions in Patrol, Narcotics, Crime Suppression, Tactical and Investigations Unit, Community Affairs Section, and the Neighborhood Enhancement Team (NET). He also held team leader and command positions in the Miami Police SWAT team. Fernandez has worked as an expert police consultant to the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, for over 11 years. He is currently the Vice-Chairman and past Chairman of the IACP Firearms Committee. Post-retirement from MPD in 2010, Fernandez served as police chief and assistant city manager for public safety for the City of Hollywood, FL. Subsequently, he was recruited by the City of Coral Gables, FL, to be the assistant city manager/director of public safety with operational authority over Police, Fire, and Emergency Management in addition to Information Technology, Labor Relations and Risk Management, and Human Resources Departments. Fernandez holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Barry University and a Master’s Degree from Nova Southeastern University. He has served as an adjunct professor at Miami-Dade College School of Business and at Florida International University Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice. In 2018, Fernandez was the Chairman for the American Heart Association and has recently been appointed as a Board Member for the greater Miami/Fort Lauderdale Board of Directors. He has been awarded the National Latino Peace Officers Association’s Chief’s Leadership Award, and the nationally recognized Police Executive Research Forum’s Gary P. Hayes Leadership Award, among others.

Resources

DOJ Report – https://cops.usdoj.gov/uvalde