Calera Police, Fire hold door breaching training

Published 10:48 am Wednesday, September 7, 2022

By Meg Herndon

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By MEG HERNDON | Staff Writer

CALERA – The Calera Police Department tested out new tools it received to breach doors in the event of an emergency on Tuesday, Aug. 16 and Thursday, Aug. 18. The breaching training was done in collaboration with the Calera Fire Department at the Shelby County Fire and Emergency Medical Training Center.

Calera Police Chief David Hyche emphasized that the department’s purpose with this training was school safety, as the CPD held active shooter training throughout the summer.

“It’s pretty simple, I mean, our focus is our schools,” Hyche said. “How do we defeat our school’s interior doors at our four schools? My SWAT commander and the firemen have been out and looked at all the doors. So the training is tailored specifically to Calera.”

Hyche said that the CPD purchased two new jersey tactical breaching tools, but through the training, they found that the older halligan bars the fire department had got the job done faster.

The halligan bars being the better tool was better for the department, Hyche said, as they were cheaper than the Jersey tools.

The training began with a classroom setting where the fire department taught the police officers the science and information behind breaching doors. Then, the training moved outside where the officers put their training in action.

The Alabama Fire College provided two test doors that allowed different adjustments to be made to change the effort it took to open the doors. This was done by placing various blocks of wood into slots to reflect the varying degrees of resistance offers might face when they attempt to breach a door in a real circumstance.

“There’s no excuse for not being able to get through the door,” Hyche said.

When officers were able to open the doors with the amount of resistance that they would be likely to see in the field, they then upped the number of blocks further to continue to test and practice their skills.

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