Principia College recently hosted the Metro East Special Weapons and Tactics unit for a training exercise.
The Director of Security Andrew Lesky said the training was important because “it helps them and it’s just nice to see us turn that corner because in the past, there was always that strange relation between Principia and law enforcement,” he continued, “where they felt we wanted to be left alone and we felt like they don’t really want to be here and it was just a push pull relationship.”
Illinois Law Enforcement Alarm System, Weapon of Mass Destruction, Special Response Team (ILEAS WMD SRT) Commander, Bradnon Desherlia, explained that in the scenario Oct. 8, they were operating as ILEAS WMD SRT, “that’s who we were training as the other day, we kind of wear two hats, so Metro East SWAT is more of a pseudonym,” said Commander Desherlia.
Both Commander Desherlia and Lesky agreed that training at Principia helped to build a bridge between the community and the law enforcement.
If a problem came up where law enforcement was necessary, Desherlia said, “it does make a lot of sense for us to train here, I really like to use in a Principia because that is within our region, it’s a venue that we would respond to if something happened.” He added, “It’s good for us to train in those areas the way we did because it gives us chances to familiarize ourselves with that campus and make those connections with the security and the maintenance folks there, because those are all people that we’re gonna rely on if something happens.”
Teams like Desherlia’s are constantly trying to find good realistic training facilities. “This day and age, you know, one of the things that they have to train for is school shootings and, how do you do that with schools and sessions and everything else,” said Lesky. This is why using a closed house on campus, Lowery was helpful for this training.
For Commander Desherlia and his team, they train for the worst case scenario. “I didn’t really hold back on [training]. I didn’t make training a give me if you what I mean, and I didn’t make it so that we could just go in there and pat ourselves on the back.” he continued, “I design our training, we design it for a worst case scenario, because if you train for the worst scenario, anything less is a manageable scenario.” said Desherlia.
Throughout the training exercise Commander Desherlia emphasized the importance of learning from this experience, he said, “if you can’t identify your weaknesses, you can’t grow.”
It is important to Lesky that he is aware of what might trigger people in the Principia community. Lesky said, “I’m always very cognizant of, you know, things that might trigger people. I’m cognizant of the fact that some of our international students come from areas where, you know, depending on who’s in power, the local police may be somebody you don’t trust.”
The community has given positive feedback to Lesky based on observations from this training scenario and a previous Federal Bureau of Investigation scenario over the summer.
Lesky said, “I think students welcome it and like to know that they feel secure on their campus that they see that these guys have been here know the drills, know the campus, and I think it actually, instead of adding an element of fear, I think it adds an element of safety to know that we are taking care to make sure that the best we can prepare for anything that might happen, and part of that is having a local law enforcement.”
