An Afternoon with Minnetonka S.W.A.T.

It’s 4 p.m. on a Wednesday in Minnetonka. A black, menacing-looking armored truck slowly makes its way up a long, curved, snowy residential driveway just off Minnetonka Boulevard. Following closely behind are a dozen men, approaching in a single-file line, each dressed in full S.W.A.T.—Special Weapons And Tactics—gear and holding up what look to be large semi-automatic riffles.

A man inside the home, apparently under siege, looks out a second-story window. Seeing the approaching squad, he calls out to his comrades, “Here they come!”

As it turns out, this wave of men wasn't the first. Snipers, hidden in the snow, had already been watching the house for almost 15 minutes.

Having been warned, those inside the house quickly plugged their ears and braced themselves, hearts pounding.

The scene is actually part of a S.W.A.T.  training scenario the Minnetonka Police Department’s Emergency Response Team staged along with departments from Eden Prairie, Edina, Hopkins and St. Louis Park. The visiting departments took on the roles of law enforcement, while members of the Minnetonka S.W.A.T.  team posed as a drug dealer and his girlfriend.

“It gives you a good opportunity to see it from the other side, to see how they are coming at you,” said  Captain Scott Boerboom, the same person who had earlier warned others when he saw S.W.A.T. approaching the house. "It keeps up their skills too."

Members of the 18-person Minnetonka twice since mid-December. The team consists of 17 trained officers and one dispatcher who acts as negotiator. Officers specialize in areas such as munitions, sniper shooting and door breaching. In real situations, members are equipped with M-16 riffles, handguns, subguns, semiautomatic and automatic firearms and axes. On this day, the officers instead used what they called “Simunition.”

The Minnetonka officer who played the drug dealer's girlfriend donned a blonde wig under his protective helmet and hid in 4-foot-by-3-foot cabinet in an upstairs bathroom. Although the more senior Minnetonka officers joked about this rookie member’s disguise and hiding place, Boerboom emphasized how important it is that these situations be as realistic as possible.

Mission accomplished.

Suddenly, it sounds as if every window in the home is crashing at once. The floorboards on the home’s second level are shaking and, in a flash, the intruding men wearing fatigues are inside the home—guns ready and on the hunt.

“It’s a game of offense and defense,” said Minnetonka Police Sergeant Dave Riegert, a 14-year S.W.A.T. team veteran.

According to a scenario sheet given to S.W.A.T. team members before the raid, the officers were serving a warrant after a tip from a confidential reliable informant, that the dealer was selling cocaine from the home and that he also had at least two guns inside.

The stage for this scenario is actually one of two vacant homes the City of Minnetonka owns. The homes, located at 12510 and 12418 Minnetonka Boulevard, were purchased as part of a larger plan to expand parkland and open space near the Minnehaha Creek corridor. And because they were being torn down next week, an opportunity was available to have training there.

The property was already run down, but in less than five minutes, the dozen-plus S.W.A.T. members had caused significant damage. They had also apprehended the “bad guys.”

Every other month, this contingent of S.W.A.T. groups meets and trains together. Each time, they run through five scenarios over the course of seven hours. Once a year, Minnetonka plays host. In past years, the department has staged the training at schools and big businesses like Cargill.

“Every year we think of something new,” Boerboom said. “We really enjoy it.”