Fairfax Police SWAT team conducts training exercise at Lacey Center in Annandale

In case you heard some shooting and explosions earlier today in the Broyhill Crest area of Annandale, don’t be alarmed; it was just the Fairfax County Police SWAT team carrying out an “explosive entry” training exercise at the Lacey Center. That’s what the police do when they have to break into a building to rescue hostages from an armed assailant.

Police and firefighters will be conducting training exercises at the Lacey Center all week. The building will be demolished next month to make way for the construction of a new elementary school.

On Tuesday afternoon, 12 of the 20 full-time members of the Fairfax County’s Police Department SWAT team were practicing a “fail safe breach,” which is used to gain entry to a room by using explosives to blow off a door.

The last time the SWAT team carried out an explosive entry was about a year ago, when police had to break into an apartment on Route 1 to arrest an armed suspect involved with crack cocaine, says Lt. Chris Cochrane, who is in charge of the department’s SWAT operations. The last hostage incident occurred in 1996, also on Route 1, when the team rescued a woman being held at knifepoint by her boyfriend.

The SWAT team follows a set of procedures before resorting to an explosive entry, says Pfc. Lance Guckenberger. These steps include reaching the suspect via phone, engaging in hostage negotiations, sending robots into the building to locate the suspect, and shooting tear gas into the building.

The team also removes access to areas of the building—Cochrane calls this “shrinking the problem”—by, for example, taking control of a staircase, so the suspect is restricted to the upper floor.

Among the tools at the team’s disposal is a large robot, about 2 feet by 3 feet, equipped with cameras and a claw. It can go up and down stairs, move furniture out of the way, and grab the clothing of injured people and drag them out. The team also has smaller remote-controlled robots and camera-equipped “eyeballs” the size of softballs that can be thrown into a window.

“Our team is considered one of the better teams in the nation,” Cochrane says. He attributes its success to its close cooperation with the Fire Department and support from county officials.