When Jihad Hits Home: Law Enforcement Trains for Nightmare Scenarios
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- In the wake of continuing terror attacks around the world, it is clear international terrorism is evolving to use ever more spectacular and brutal tactics.
Coordinated attacks on multiple locations can quickly bring entire cities to a standstill and represent a nightmare scenario for any law enforcement agency.
Just outside Little Rock, Arkansas, law enforcement professionals from across the country came to a 700-acre facility to find better ways to respond to terror attacks.
The Direct Action Resource Center, known as DARC, has been developing counter-terrorism techniques for two decades and offers a special course several times per year especially for law enforcement.
Former Green Beret Rich Mason is the founder.
"DARC was started in 1996 as a way for special operations type forces, law enforcement and military, to get off campus, away from the flagpole and do really focused, cost-effective training," Mason told CBN News.
The Law Enforcement Counter-Terrorism Course brings in cops from all different agencies and throws them together in a chaotic, hyper-realistic scenario from day one, with terrorist role players shooting very painful plastic bullets.
"This course is designed to defeat a multi-cell attack, similar to Paris, but actually a little bit worse in scale," Mason said.
Chris Ameling is a lieutenant with the Pulaski County Sherriff's Office.
"This is training you can't get anywhere else," Ameling explained. "When you have a guy that is actively trying to hurt you and it's not for play, I mean it's real life, you put a lot more into it, you take your time, your breathing goes up, I mean, it feels real."
The scenarios get more and more chaotic as the night goes on, as the instructors throw curve balls into the mix to keep these guys guessing and up the value of the training.
"We have everything from suicide vests, to being shot at. You know, it's kind of the full spectrum of violence that we're able to simulate for law enforcement," Mason continued.
And cops are lining up for the training, many taking vacation time and spending their own money to be here because they understand what's at stake.
"We have to prepare for that and be ready for it, whether it's ISIS or it's homegrown terrorism," Ameling said.
With the next attack likely a matter of when, not if, these men are spending lots of late nights at DARC making sure they'll be ready.
"Knowledge is power," Mason said. "The more you know, the more you've experienced, it definitely gives you an edge."
