SANTA CRUZ, Calif.- A day after two major police incidents here on the Central Coast. Wednesday, early one hundred officers stormed the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.
The SWAT training exercise came on the heels of a standoff in one city and a shootout in another.
Central Coast News was at the training and explains how the timing was just right.
SWAT trucks in the parking lot officers in SWAT gear at the iconic Giant Dipper. It's not real, but if it were, 30 year sheriff Lt. veteran Bob Pursley hopes Santa Cruz County officers will be more prepared than when he started.
"Probably about 1998, '99 is when we started looking at tatical responses to high risk incidents," said Pursley.
High risk incidents like the standoff his team assisted Watsonville police with Tuesday afternoon.
"Our response is pre-planned, we do game plan, we do plan throughout the incident because it's ever changing and unfolding situations so we try to have our training in place so we know what we can do, when we can do it, and how it should be done," said Pursley.
If you've wondered about the formations SWAT teams form, that's also something they practice especially when the suspect is hiding and could be armed.
"It's all about officer safety and officer accountability...We know were everyone is."
Tuesday, officers in Gonzales knew right where their suspect was when they pulled over a wanted parolee. That high risk traffic stop is a danger Pursley said officers faced, special training or not.
"That could've happened to a normal everyday patrol officer or patrol deputy by themselves walking up on a car, doing a car stop solo."
Wednesday, over 80 officers from every agency in Santa Cruz County practiced reacting to several different scenarios thrown at them.
The SC Sheriff's Department who is leading the training at the Boardwalk said that Tuesday's police events all over the Central Coast is a perfect example of why more of this needs to happen.
"Today's training is designed to have those type of situations worked on. Here is the time for us to find out what mistakes will be made and correct them."
The Santa Cruz Sheriff's Department said the real life practice was the final part of the training that started in January.
