[music]
Pat: The Security Response Force
is an elite proprietary federal guard force that is tactically skilled, professional, and vigilant.
[music]
Dustin: We're meant to be a quick reactionary force in case of a
domestic or foreign terror attack. Kalyn: This is not just a little security
guard thing. We're actually out here making sure we can deal with the situation if it arises.
Pat: A proprietary federal guard force, they can bring much so much more to bear
at a reasonable price point than a contract guard force. They can provide defense to the facility
that's both robust, but also flexible. Narrator: Applicants that pass the
rigorous physical fitness test attend a 9-week academy at Reclamation’s Center of Excellence,
located at Grand Coulee Dam. Pat: That academy not only
trains our staff here at Grand Coulee Dam but also federal guard forces
from Hoover Dam as well as Glen Canyon Dam. Narrator: Recruits learn advanced firearms skills
and train and qualify at a phenomenal firing range with pneumatic turning targets up to 100 yards
and additional targets at 500 yards. Joseph: Our standards are very high.
Men and women come into our program with various levels of marksmanship experience, but by the time
they graduate our program, their expertise could compete with many other agencies. Some of best
training all around the country.
Dustin: I fired more pistol rounds in the academy here than I did during my entire 12
years in the army, and that includes a tour in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
Pat: We have both a handgun, a rifle and a precision rifle qualification course.
Joseph: Some of the standards we meet when we're talking about the pistol qual, they shoot under
really tight times. One round from the three-yard line in 1.25 seconds. Two rounds in 1.5 seconds.
As we move back, they get more time, but we still have 15 rounds that they're firing from standing,
kneeling, and prone from the 50 yard line in a 100-round qualification.
But also keeping your body fit to be able to prepare. Because it's
one thing that you can shoot great on a static range, but are you fit enough
to run to the fight to rescue your buddy and then also be able to actively engage the threat?
[music]
Kalyn: We do transition drills, movements, firing out while moving, and in vehicle,
out of vehicle scenarios. [music]
Narrator: The academy also focuses on physical fitness and a wide range of control tactics.
Joseph: In our academies will put them through daily, rigorous workouts where
they're doing a circuit. Moving around the mat room, with punches and strikes and
mountain climbers. Kalyn: We do a lot of hand to hand training,
ground training, grappling, boxing, sparring. A lot of different techniques. Baton usage,
handcuffing techniques. We go through a wide range of training scenarios.
Joseph: We've got some unique opportunities to train inside the powerhouses. Some moving
through the galleries, room clearing. Kalyn: When you're moving as a team,
you're looking out for communication. You have to keep that communication because there's different
corners, angles, rounded corners that you have to take care of, and you have to cover.
Narrator: Among the various courses taught at the academy, the SRF also
conducts active shooter training. Joseph: We do have an opposition
force. That's correct. You are engaging the threat and they're shooting back at you.
[rapid gunshots] Joseph: We want our officers to be safe,
so we're using the simunition rounds, the dye-marking cartridges in our force-on-force
training in our active shooter training. Dustin: It's like a crazy calm. That's
where you just fall back on muscle memory, the things you've done a million times.
[gunshots] Pat: Our officers learn
not only when to engage in defensive national critical infrastructure but when not to engage,
and what the appropriate use of force is for the threat that they're presented with.
Joseph: The instructor cadre, we have Force Science Certificates, which is the leading
science behind use of force decision making right now in the country.
In the classroom, we teach lot of case law. We teach a lot of de escalation techniques.
Kalyn: It's not always about just guns-a-blazing or how well I can place my rounds on target or make
sure that target's no longer a threat. All right, I might have somebody that I just need to talk to.
They just might need to communicate with someone. Joseph: This job's not for everybody.
Graduating the academy is not an inevitability. Pat: The standards are immensely high for our
Security Response Force officers, and not everyone can make it. That's something we're
actually very proud of. The people that do make it through the academy carry that badge
of honor with them, that they made it through a very arduous process and they're very select.