METRO-DADE POLICE DEPARTMENT (SPECIAL RESPONSE TEAM)

by Ed Caneva

A soft offshore breeze on a plushy white, sandy beach. Palm trees and lush tropical foliage covered with a blanket of Caribbean sunshine. Welcome to Miami-Dade County, a paradise that attracts thousands of tourists and millions in international trade each year. It also attracts a nasty criminal element: Russian Mafia, Jamaican Posse, Colombian drug cartels, and home-grown gangbangers. But the Metro-Dade Police Department (MDPD) has a secret weapon for these worst of the worst. It is the department's last line of defense against the hard-core criminals that terrorize Miami. If you travel to Miami, you may see them pass you in a SWAT van on the street or catch a glimpse of them in action on the six o'clock news serving a high-risk search warrant.

Take a look at MDPD's Special Response Team (SRT), recently nicknamed on the streets as the real Men in Black. A full-time SWAT unit composed of dedicated officers who proudly risk their lives for the safety of others. If you see them on the move, you can bet another bad element will be off the streets of Miami-Dade that night. You can absolutely take that to the bank. You've seen them on CNN save a hijacked school bus filled with autistic children from an armed gunman in 1995, and the recent take down of the houseboat where serial killer Andrew Cunanan was hiding out. Planes, trains, and automobiles, they do it all, from a hijacked Spanish airliner to hunting fugitive bank robbers on the streets and in the Everglades. They even assisted in the recovery mission of the Value Jet 592 crash. SRT is assigned some of the toughest assignments in Miami-Dade County.

MDPD has nearly 3,000 sworn officers and 1,500 civilian employees, making it the largest police department in the southeast region of the United States. It provides police services to the citizens of unincorporated Miami-Dade County. That includes Miami International Airport with nearly every make and model of aircraft in commercial use, the Port of Miami which is home port to numerous cruise ships and services large international cargo vessels, and the Metro-Rail transit system. SRT is also one of several MDPD units that provide service to many of the 29 municipalities within the county.

During the mid-1970's, the Miami area experienced a large increase in urban violence. It suffered an unexpected amount of barricaded subjects, sniper attacks, bombings, and hijackings. The two largest police agencies in South Florida, MDPD (known at the time as Dade County Public Safety Department or PSD) and Miami Police, did not have tactical units with the capabilities of quickly neutralizing these situations. Fresh in the memory of law enforcement were the Los Angeles Watts Riots of 1965 and the massacre of Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany. Unpreparedness caused disaster. In 1974, MDPD selected a group of officers, many of them Vietnam veterans, for a special response training course taught by the FBI at their headquarters in Quantico, Va.

The following year, MDPD established their first SWAT unit, known then as the Hostage Rescue Team (HRT). Most of its initial work, however, turned out to be barricaded subjects and high-risk warrants, therefore the unit was soon renamed SRT. SRT began operating in what is known in SWAT jargon as a "pool concept." Trained SRT police officers would don SWAT equipment when called upon for a special response. But with the explosion of violence in the 1980's, things changed. By 1985, the unit was called upon 500 times, and MDPD wisely elected to make SRT a full-time unit. Today the unit averages about 400 operations a year, including but not limited to high-risk warrants, peppered with dozens of barricaded subjects and hostage rescue call-outs as well as dignitary protection details. It is without a doubt one of the busiest SWAT teams in the country. As of July 1998, SRT had just shy of 200 operations since the beginning of the calendar year.

"Experience in real-world operations makes you effective. These types of special missions call for unique and highly skilled, extremely tough professionals. MDPD SRT is effective because they train and work at their mission full time. There is no substitute for experience and focusing on your profession full time, " said a Navy SEAL officer and recent Commanding Officer of a Navy SEAL Team. "Sleep well, Miami-Dade," he added of his personal assesment of the unit's capabilities, "Your tax dollars are hard at work!"

MDPD SRT is presently commanded by two Lieutenants who report to a section Captain. Five Sergeants are assigned to the unit; three as Team Leaders, one as the Training Officer, and one as the Dignitary Protection Coordinator. Twenty-seven experienced officers compose the ranks of the Team, a total of ten operators per each of the three teams. A monthly on-call rotation covers the midnight shift and weekends.

Physical fitness is a necessary cornerstone of the Team. An SRT officer must be strong enough to carry a wounded Teammate or a hostage, or stand toe to toe with the largest felon on the street. He must also have the endurance to take a physically punishing job and the continual stress of high-risk operations on a daily basis. All this takes a heavy toll on the body, especially in the hot tropical climate. You have to be in good condition to hack the grind. The officers are afforded two hours per day to remain in shape, although the high operational tempo of the unit often does not permit time for even this.

"After our work-outs, if there are no warrants to be served , we're either training or on the range honing our shooting skills. It's that simple," said Sgt. Pete Caroddo, a former Marine and one of three Team Leaders. Caroddo, who has been wounded several times in the line of duty, has been with the unit since it was first formed. "Not a day goes by that I don't go home drenched in sweat," he says. Because of the south Florida heat, hydration is of major importance to SRT. Water bottles can be found in the hands or cargo pockets of almost every member. "We've had call-outs go up to 12 or 14 hours, sometimes longer," says Ofc. Greg Kral, another former Marine and an SRT sniper, as well as a two time champion of the Snipercraft SWAT competition. "If you don't stay hydrated, you will not function, and you'll do us no good." Kral is also a recipient of the Gold Medal of Valor, MDPD's highest award for bravery. A quick poll of SRT would reveal the vast majority of its veterans are all highly decorated, another indication of the high quality among the Team.

Besides the wide variety of trains, planes, and automobiles SRT must master, they also have to negotiate varied obstacles and environments to include lakes, canals, rivers, and the ocean. The entire unit is trained in scuba and tactical diving techniques. SRT weaponry includes the Heckler & Koch USP 40 cal. handgun, the MP-5 40 caliber submachine gun, 223 caliber assault rifles, Remington 870 shotgun, 40mm chemical weapon gun, Remington 700 .308 caliber sniper rifle, and McMillan .50 caliber sniper rifle.

SRT selection is stiff. Aspiring candidates must serve a minimum of two years on MDPD before applying to the unit. The candidate must then pass a series of tests to include a psychological evaluation, background check, oral interview with the SRT command staff, and evaluation for demonstrated proficiency in fitness, firearms skills, and swimming. The officer must then successfully complete a three-week SRT school, which will prove to be some of the most physically and mentally demanding training he/she will ever encounter. A high level of personal motivation, self-discipline, and teamwork will be expected from those officers wishing to complete the school and aspiring to one day become part of SRT. Failure to demonstrate any one of these characteristics will result in being dropped from the school and consideration for the unit.

"You can be an Olympic-class athlete or the best shot in the world, but not everyone can operate in this type of disciplined, Team-oriented environment. Those three characteristics, personal motivation, self-discipline, and teamwork, are what keep us alive and allow us to successfully complete our missions. You want to be SRT, you have to have all three," says an SRT officer. Once an officer completes all the steps in the selection process, he/she is put on an availability list for the unit until a vacancy opens.

MDPD SRT trains constantly with numerous police and federal law enforcement agencies. They also conduct two SWAT schools annually, one in the Miami area and one in the state of Ohio. While unit members teach several courses, they also constantly attend a variety of training themselves, throughout the United States. This allows them to remain on the cutting edge of the latest tactics and techniques.

"We encourage SWAT officers and Special Operations units from all over to stop by and cross-train with us. We enjoy sharing training and experiences. It's the only way to make yourself better, and we strive to be the best," says Sgt. Mike Angelica, an experienced SRT veteran and currently the SRT Training Officer. "We don't want to shoot anyone. We want to save lives; hostage lives, other police officers' lives, our lives, even a subject's life. But sometimes violent criminals give you no choice. They will engage a Metro-Dade officer and they will engage us, and that's why we're a full-time Team training and focusing on the worst criminal element out there that targets the public. You have to move fast, hit hard, and apply force where it is needed with precision. If it ever comes down to a gunfight, you have to be the best. There's no second place winner in a gunfight," concluded another SRT officer.

Sleep well, Miami-Dade. Your tax dollars are at work.