Estevan Police Service and Weyburn Police Service members met up last week in order to practice as part of the Joint Tactical Support Team, (JTST) which responds to a number of situations in both communities.
The JTST blocked off an area in Estevan on Thursday, before also practicing in Weyburn on Friday.
EPS Detective Trevor Roberts, who's also the team leader of the JTST, says that this scheduled practice was to make sure their skills are sharp in case of an emergency.
"We do monthly, quarterly, and then annual training kind of increments where we focus on just our progression and things for the team that way in each community. The third day of the week was a pre-planned scenario that involved not just our tactical side of things but also our negotiators, our crisis negotiators and then also our incident commanders."
"Something like that would be invoked with any major incident in Southeast Saskatchewan and Estevan or Weyburn. So you would have the tactical side of things along with negotiators and incident commanders that would oversee and work alongside us for successful resolution of any major incident."
That training was varied with the team going to a couple of abandoned buildings across the city.
"We did have a couple dwelling type places or houses here that were vacant. So we did train on 1st Street at an abandoned property and then also down in Ambassador. The benefit to that, whether it's in Estevan, Weyburn, or the surrounding area is to get some venues that are very realistic, obviously to what we will go to whether that's a mobile home type setup or condominium or just a standalone bungalow or two-story style house."
In this case, the team was able to do a bit more realistic training as one of the venues was set to be demolished.
"In this case, one was certainly used in the sense of just deploying resources to that location and working on our tactics throughout. We were fortunate that at the other locations there that day we could use some tactics that resulted in some damage to the structure because it was no longer in use and was going to be kind of condemned anyhow."
Roberts says that a few of their tactics are destructive to property, such as gaining access to structures or using breaching tools that cause damage, so being able to do those safely is a big help.
While many of the officers involved in the program are often in other southeast communities normally, for some being able to practice in another city can get them some valuable experience.
"I think in the sense of the additional resources and from the tactical side, it's new to them. So this scenario includes the negotiators and incident commanders and anybody else, dispatchers that would be involved with that, certainly, they don't always get to head up to a different city or community for the scenario training."
"So for them, absolutely it was something that is not completely unique, but yeah, it doesn't happen all the time for the other elements that are invoked when a tactical team is called out."
People should expect more training over the winter with the JTST already planning out some winter events, with updates on when city blocks will be closed released once the information is available.
Roberts also thanked the public for being understanding when areas were blocked off and any inconveniences the training caused.