OPD's Special Response Team aware of pressure
after tragedy at Virginia Tech
BY RACHEL WADDICK
SEPT. 25, 2007

Last April 16, 32 students were killed during a shooting rampage at Virginia Tech. When the Special Weapons and Tactics team (SWAT) was called to the scene. It took them five minutes to cut through the chained-shut doors to Norris Hall. Afterward, experts said an effectively trained SWAT team should have taken no more than a minute to break into a locked building.

Criticism of the Blacksburg, Va. SWAT response to the bloodiest school shooting in history was rampant, leaving students across the country wondering about their own safety and schools scrambling to secure their campuses. According to an NBC 4 news report on September 24th, Ohio University police officers have just completed training to form the school’s first SWAT team.

That has been the case at Miami University too. Five years ago, Oxford, Ohio, didn’t have a SWAT team either. The city’s Blue Uniformed Support Team. (BUST) was a non-tactical, no high-risk police force that had the main objective of breaking up big, out-of-control parties and monitoring student alcohol consumption.

No SWAT team was deemed necessary until about four years ago when a man barricaded himself in an Oxford trailer park with a shotgun. The Oxford Police Department (OPD) called Butler County SWAT, and it took the team almost two hours to assemble and arrive at the location.

“It was at that point that we realized that a SWAT team was needed,” said OPD Sgt. Tom Horvath. “After that incident in the trailer park, we realized B.U.S.T. was no longer sufficient.”

Thus, the Oxford Special Response Team (SRT) was born.

“We call ourselves the Special Response Team because it describes perfectly what we do,” Horvath said. “We handle special situations that happen to require tactical measures. The term SWAT is too aggressive.”

The SRT consists of 12 police officers, 8 from the OPD and four from the Miami University Police Department (MUPD). The fact that it is multi-jurisdictional is highly beneficial.

“The MUPD brings assets and a perspective to [the SRT] that we wouldn’t otherwise have,” Horvath said.

As the SRT Team Leader, Horvath leads the training exercises that take place twice a month for five hours each. Most of the exercises take place off-campus at local houses whose owners have given permission for their use, but the SRT has practiced infiltrating and has carried out “scenarios” in each academic building on Miami University’s campus, as well as at the three local schools in the area.


“We have put great effort to train on Miami’s campus and in all of the Oxford schools,” Horvath said. “We know it is of great importance.”

SRT member Pete Reising, a member of the OPD for 21 years, shares Horvath’s confidence in the capabilities of the team.

“We’re definitely prepared for any sort of Virginia Tech-like situation,” Reising said. “Our scenario-based training reflects our motto: ‘Train for Success’. We work with each other and train regularly. For only a part-time SRT, we do pretty well for ourselves.”

But could the mistakes made in Blacksburg ever occur in Oxford?

Reising rejects the notion that the Blacksburg SWAT team was to blame.

“It wasn’t the response, but the lack of notification,” he explained. “Those students weren’t notified about the dangerous situation taking place. The response time was good, and the SWAT did what they could. The pressure is intxense when [the SWAT team] is actually dealing with a real-life situation, and you should always expect things to go wrong. But you should be trained to learn to react quickly in order to avoid a disaster.”

While both Horvath and Reising share similar confidence in the SRT’s preparation, a sampling of the Miami student body demonstrated mixed feelings. Of 100 students surveyed at Bell Tower Dining Hall during a recent lunch hour, 38 said they considered the highly prepared for an on-campus, high-risk situation, 56 students didn’t think Miami and the OPD are prepared for such an event, and 26 were aware Oxford had its own Special Response Team.

Interestingly, Oxford’s SRT did not change its tactics in light of the Virginia Tech massacre.

“We have a certain approach, a certain tactical layout we follow, to dealing with any situations at any of the schools in our jurisdiction,” said Horvath. Horvath was also confident enough in the effectiveness of that method to reject the notion that anything needed to be changed or adjusted.

And while the SRT is called out for duty on average about 12 to15 times per year, its presence has never been needed on Miami’s campus. “But we’re not disappointed about that,” Horvath said.

However, Reising says it is only a matter of time. “If there’s a situation in the future, which there probably will be, [the SRT] will be ready.”

When asked what separates the Oxford SRT from other tactical teams, Reising said that not only is the team strong, but smart too. “In this job, you have to use your brain when your brawn doesn’t work. That brain might not only save your life, but the life of a fellow teammate, of an Oxford resident, or of a Miami student.”