Dec. 20—EFFINGHAM — Special police units practiced at an empty house planned for demolition on Wednesday, honing their tactics in anticipation of crisis situations.
“We don’t wanna fight them,” said SWAT team Commander Chris Fozzard. “We don’t want them to fight us. We don’t want there to be any gunshots.”
The drills were conducted by the Illinois Law Enforcement Alarm System’s Special Weapons and Tactics Regions 9 and 11 Weapons of Mass Destruction Special Response Team. The team practices at least 16 hours per month, which is split up into two days.
There are 11 regions in Illinois, and ILEAS Regions 9/11 are responsible for 35 southern and southeastern counties. However, they can assist with other local SWAT calls and any types of instances that could involve hazardous materials that may involve extra protective equipment, explained Fozzard.
Fozzard is a detective for the Marion Police Department but has been the commander for the 9/11 Region SWAT team since September 2023.
Wednesday’s training at an unoccupied residence in the 300th block of North 4th Street was practice for breaching a residence, clearing it out, searching for the person or people inside and taking them into custody. So the officers ran multiple types of simulated barricades.
“We’re able to use [the house] for essentially breaking, live practice for breaking doors, breaking windows to breach the residents, things of that nature,” said Fozzard. “So we can actually cause damage to the house, which we don’t normally get to do in training sites because it’s hard to find houses that are being torn down that they let us use.”
Jason Gouchenouer has been part of the SWAT team for about a year but has been an Effingham city police officer for nine years. Before that, he was an officer at Eastern Illinois University. He’s also currently a reservist officer for the United States Air Force and has been for 21 years.
He’s attended roughly 30 training sessions.
“I joined the team because my military background has a few similarities, so I felt pulled to the SWAT environment,” said Gouchenouer. “Training is always a good thing. You can never have enough of it.”
Fozzard explained that the SWAT team will do things to try and learn more about the interior of the house, which could include breaking doors and windows to see inside and so the person or people can hear them. The team also has phones they can throw in, so they can communicate with those inside.
“It’s a progression to keep from using force against people and keep those people from using force against us,” he said. “So if they’re refusing to give up peacefully, we have to go to different options for gas or break-in the door or whatever the case may be.”
As part of the training, the SWAT Team members use two different Lenco Bearcat armored trucks; one with barricade tools and one without. They each contain a multitude of equipment to assist the SWAT team with persuading people to surrender, like gas munitions, drones, robots and less lethal munitions.
However, both Fozzard and Gouchenouer stressed that safety is their number one concern. Using the Bearcat trucks is not the first step.
“I know we’re out here in all the gear and guns and stuff like that, but our ultimate objective is not to take life,” said Gouchenouer. “It’s to make the situation safe.”
Effingham Daily News Reporter Marie Adamick can be reached at marie.adamick@effinghamdailynews.com or 618-510-9230