Wednesday, June 19, 2013

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San Juan SWAT team trains for spillover violence
Posted: 12.10.2010 at 9:20 PM
Katie Lopez

Katie Lopez is a reporter for Action 4 News.

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As the violence in Mexico escalates law enforcement on this side of the border are preparing for what could come this way.

"We want to be able to prepare a team that is going to be able address situations throughout the Valley on a moment’s notice," said San Juan Police Sgt. Rolando Garcia.

To address situation on a moment’s notice—these guys have to learn how to work as one.

"We want to be able to train everyone the same way,” said Garcia. “We don't want them to come in having three different styles—we want everyone to be on the same page and they know what they're doing."

Together they break a car window, search a home, and capture five suspects in the process.

Garcia said the training not only shows the different agencies how to work together—it teaches them how to survive and potentially dangerous situation

"The safety factor here is that you have to be quick,” explained Garcia as he took our Action 4 News camera up to the second floor of the home.”  You have the whole team stacked up behind you and you have to make sure you can take the door down as quickly as possible."

Crawl spaces—attics—those are just some of the hiding places these men are trained to look for and in when entering an unfamiliar location.

"Crawl spaces like this is the perfect place for them to hide,” Garcia explained. “They will put something like this up {holding up a piece of board} so they can hide from the operators that are coming in.”

As the men prepare for potentially dangerous situations—their number one goal is to keep their team and community out of harm’s way.

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