FORT GEORGE G. MEADE, Md. (April 26, 2012) -- The dilapidated bachelor housing barracks off Cooper Avenue are scheduled to be demolished in about six months.
But before bulldozers roll across the aging facility, members of the Anne Arundel County Police Department's Special Weapons and Tactics training course provided a head start in the demolition -- by breaking down a few doors.
Two teams of police officers learning the tactics of the county's Quick Response Team spent a portion of a training exercise on Fort Meade, using the old barracks for a simulated high-risk search warrant. The training on April 17 allowed SWAT students to experience breaking down a door and conducting a search.
"It's hard to find training facilities where you can break stuff," said Anne Arundel County Police Cpl. Todd Betz from the Special Operations Section's QRT. "It was great. [The barracks] allowed it to be more realistic with the breaching element."
The barracks have been used in recent months for multiple police and fire-training exercises. Fort Meade firefighters train at the facility for a variety of HAZMAT and forcible-entry exercises.
"It's not just kicking doors in," said Maj. J. Darrell Sides, director of the Directorate of Emergency Services. "It's a skill set on how to breach a door under an emergency condition."
Sides said the QRT exercise is an extension of the strong relationship between Fort Meade and the Anne Arundel County Police Department, which supported DES during Pfc. Bradley Manning's Article 32 hearing last December.
While county police can assist on post, Fort Meade Police cannot enforce laws off federal property. Allowing the Anne Arundel Police Department to train on post is a way to repay the department for its support.
"I'm unable to back them up like they're able to back me up," Sides said. "I can't return that favor. So we look at other ways we can help the county out, and this is it. We offer them a unique training environment that they can't reproduce in the county."
The Annapolis Police Department was the first law enforcement agency to use the Fort Meade location for training during a joint exercise with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. The two organizations practiced serving warrants and dealing with barricaded suspects.
Sides said police agencies are attracted to the opportunity to train at the installation because they can treat the facilities as they would in an emergency.
"There was nothing that you could not break -- everything was in play," Sides said. "They can bust down doors, they can shoot Simunitions [nonlethal training ammunition] and they can practice something in one room. And if it didn't go real well, they could move to the next room and do the exact same scenario."
Soon after, the National Capital Region SWAT Association's Breachers Cell requested permission to train at the barracks. While the SWAT division didn't use scenario-based training, the group practiced applying explosives on the doors. Since each room is the same, the division tried various methods on doors of similar strength and design. The team blew up about 10 doors.
"We gave them permission for a four-hour window and they started blowing doors up," Sides said.
Following these two drills, the Anne Arundel County's Special Operations Section asked if it could use the buildings for QTR training.
"We simply gave them the keys and said, 'Hey, go for it. Just clean up after you're done,' " Sides recalled.
Betz, an instructor of the three-week basic SWAT course, said the April 17 exercise at Fort Meade was only a portion of a three-part, high-risk search warrant practical. For the drill, team members conducted similar exercises in Pasadena near the Francis Scott Key Bridge and in Severna Park.
The drill scenario included searching for robbery suspects at each of the three locations. After the two teams of students were given intelligence, they created their own game plan to take action.
"They came here and it's up to them to go through all the steps that you do in a high-risk search warrant," Betz said.
When the second team arrived on Fort Meade in their white, unmarked truck, the seven students in face shields and bullet-proof vests approached the building complex. They moved cautiously in a single-file line up the steps on the side of the barracks and down the narrow walkway.
Hoisting a metal battering ram, the team bashed in the door and rushed into the room. The opportunity to use the heavy equipment to break down doors, said Betz, provides better training.
"They actually have to go through the steps of utilizing that manual breaching ram," Betz said. "[The barracks] allowed it to be more realistic with the breaching element."
After entering the room, QRT students quickly completed their high-risk search, then moved out and back into their truck for their next training site.
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