Final Week at Citizens’ FBI Academy Including My Day at the Gun Range

The last seven weeks have gone quickly, and the final week of class has been every bit as fascinating as our first session. Our final topics were: Crisis Negotiation, SWAT Team, and Gang Activity.

Karie Gibson, a clinical psychologist, is one of the crisis negotiators at the Minneapolis FBI. To be a crisis negotiator a special agent has to have at least three years experience, complete an intensive course in negotiation at Quantico, and fulfill an annual training requirement. The negotiator has a special role in SWAT team operations. They conduct negotiations during hostage incidents or when a suspect has barricaded themselves in a building.

I was particularly interested in the techniques they use. They use ALS which means Active Listening Skills. These are essentially the same skills I was taught to use to deal with difficult medical situations when I was in nurses’ training. Labeling emotions, paraphrasing, mirroring, effective pauses, open ended questions, and summarizing can all be effective tools to bring a critical situation to a non-violent end.

Our presentation on SWAT teams was given by John Gainer. There are 15 agents on the SWAT team in Minneapolis. The physical training is grueling and never ends. Four days out of each month are spent training at different sites and preparing for different situations.

To be on SWAT a special agent needs to be an excellent marksman and usually has a special additional skill that they bring to the team. It could be expert rappelling, sniper training, emergency medical skills or even special expertise in the technical maintenance of the vehicles and weapons they use. High risk entries and arrests are all accomplished by the SWAT team.

Our little area of the world was the scene of its own FBI SWAT team activity. The White Supremacist who resided in Mendota Heights was arrested by the full SWAT team at the Buon Giorno in Lilydale.  The method SWAT uses is to come at suspected criminals quickly and with a lot of fire power. The goal is to overwhelm their suspect so that surrender is immediate. We were told by one of the SWAT supervisors that in his 20 years of SWAT activity, a shot was only fired once.
No shots fired is considered an optimal result.

Special Agent Gainer also gave us a detailed presentation on gang activity in the metropolitan area. A gang is defined as three or more people who have a common identifying sign, symbol or name, committing criminal activity and or intimidation in a local area. Historically there was a tremendous increase in gang activity in 1955 through 1969. Individual gangs mobilized primarily to protect themselves from other organized gangs.

Since that time gangs have become increasingly more sophisticated and organized in their activities. They will try to put a “lock” on a neighborhood and control it by fear and intimidation. Experts feel that peer pressure, lack of parental involvement and lack of role modeling contribute to the proliferation of gangs.

Surprisingly gang members are not difficult to find. They love social networking and facebook as much as any other social group. Pictures of gang members with the name of the gang and identifying symbols are all over the internet. 

I was surprised to hear that female gangs have become more common than ever. Our presenter described the female gang members as smarter, tougher and more sophisticated than their male counterparts. They are also extremely difficult to interview. As gang transportation, communication and operations have become more sophisticated, the type of crime they commit has become more sophisticated as well. Although most gang activity is funded by drug sales, committing mortgage fraud has fallen within their purview as well!

The Gun Range

The FBI gun range is located on the UMore site in Rosemount.

The day started out with a demonstration of how a SWAT team would approach a hostage situation including the use of a sniper. The second demonstration showed how the team would extract an injured civilian or fellow SWAT team member while in the line of fire. There is no way to describe it other than just plain incredible. The members worked in complete unison with unbelievable accuracy and discipline.

I also had the pleasure of meeting the SWAT team EMT. He is a nurse with critical care experience currently employed at North Memorial Hospital. He opened his emergency kit for me and explained everything he carries and why. I also have a background in critical care nursing and thoroughly enjoyed talking “shop” with him! I was a little surprised to see that some of the emergency meds like adrenaline for example had to be drawn up manually to be administered. At one point in time, adrenaline in emergency rooms was all in “bristoject” packs that are pre-drawn and ready to administer.

I was told that there is no money to be made by the drug companies in continuing to deliver the medication in that form, so vials and manual drawing have become necessary once again. Even some of the vials in the size he needs to fit in his pack have become difficult to acquire. 

Once all the demonstrations were over, it was time for each of us to experience firing a variety of weapons. I was fortunate that I had already done the Mendota Heights/West St. Paul Citizens’ Police Academy. We had some experience firing a hand gun at the range in the West St. Paul Police Department.

To start out with the standard issue FBI Glock handgun was not a new experience for me. It was a new experience, however, to fire an M-4 rifle and a shoulder mounted MP-5. I have found that the secret in firing these types of weapons is not to anticipate or be surprised by the “kick” they deliver. In the case of the revolver, the target is “sighted” through a metal open rectangle on the gun barrel itself. In the case of the M-4 and the M-15 the target is “sighted” electronically. To fire the weapon accurately you have to remain still and be prepared to fire immediately the moment the target is in the middle of the sight.

I would find it impossible to hold the weapon so still that the target would remain for any period of time right in the middle of the sighting mechanism. For that one moment that the target is there, I have to fire immediately to have any kind of accuracy. I actually did quite well with my targets. However, I had plenty of time to make my shots. I have immense respect for the agents who can repeatedly hit targets accurately while moving and under duress.

 Seven Weeks Complete

Looking back at the previous seven weeks of training, I am feeling a little overwhelmed by the incredible amount of material we have had to absorb. I can’t remember a night, however, when I wasn’t surprised by the depth and intricacies of FBI operations. Without exception I was impressed by the professionalism of the agents who addressed us and also their immense commitment to their missions.  Following my Mendota Heights/West St. Paul Citizens’ Police Academy experience, I had the privilege of doing “drive alongs” at night with several of the officers.
Residents would be dumbfounded at what goes on at night in the city that they will never know about. The same was true of Citizens’ FBI Academy. Things go on in the country and metropolitan area that we go through our lives completely unaware of. All I can say is thank goodness the FBI is watching.