No Response Teams!?!

[rodeodeputy]

The agency which I work for has decied to do away with SRT. We now must handle any disturbances by ourselves. there are appoximately 70 inmates per officer in our pods.....Guess we wait untill someone gets hurt or killed. We also are not allowed to carry any cuffs or weapons of any kind. This is one of the largest county jails in Texas.

[TexasAggieOfc]

Well, I happen to know a couple of folks that work for that agency. If I'm not mistaken, isn't it the largest, certified jail in the State (Even though there's a couple of jails larger, they're not TCJS certified). And most of them that I have talked to have said there is no difference between the Special Response Team days, and the post SRT days. All jailers are trained in the use of force, per TCLEOSE. On top of that, one of them has told me that all of the supervision carries weapons, and the old SRT team is still avaliable for certain emergency responses. At least, that's what they tell me. My only concern would be that the jailers may not get inserviced as often as they should on Use of Force

[TX_CO]

At TDCJ we always respond to our own emergencies, riots, etc. although we do have a regional ERT but their response time is too slow to be truly effective as a deterrent or reaction force..

I was on a rec yard last night with 156 Medium custody inmates by myself.

I routinely do Cell Extractions and other high risk entries due to our offender population, generally we are outnumbered on my unit 53 Officers supervising 3100 inmates ranging from minimum custody to max (Ad Seg) custody.

The solution is for your supervisors to train each officer to function as a member of SRT so that all officers are qualified to respond.

We do carry OC as part of our uniform, most positions carry cuffs and radios.
I routinely carry a baton and body armor as well.

[Blue Knights MC]

We also are not allowed to carry any cuffs or weapons of any kind.

Not "allowed" to carry cuffs? When the people that work for me show up without theirs I have to ask them what they plan on doing when the poo poo hits the fan.
Please Mr. Inmate sir, stop trying to hit me and stand still while my sergeant comes to talk to you.

Brother, I feel for ya.

[Cubfan]

We have a Special Ops team, but they are on call and typically only respond to riots, escapes, etc.

Each officer in my department is trained in UoF and is equiped with cuffs, radio, and OC spray. At some workstations, their is also a set of leg irons. Certain posts are designated to respond to incidents throughout their facilities.

It always amazes me to hear of officers who have to supervise inmates with nothing but a uniform and a set of keys.

[SPC-1]

We were told to we couldnt carry our cuffs, spray or even our cuff key. Only some of our supervisors carry cuffs and spray. Every night is like a vacation now.

[Stewie]

We were told to we couldnt carry our cuffs, spray or even our cuff key. Only some of our supervisors carry cuffs and spray. Every night is like a vacation now.

What the hell???

As for the topic our ERT is ourselves, we handle anything that happens with our OC or the Taser. If it's a hostage situation then we bring in the Road Deputies for backup and if needed the State Patrol. Most of the time the second the Taser comes out they freeze, and then the red laser dot sits on their chest they give up.

[JMTX]

I'm at the same place as the OP, and have seen no difference in response to emergency situations (and I have one of those situations almost every night, seeing as how I work on a post with one of our resident trouble-makers!)

Before, when a code was called, you had 5 people there.

Now, you call a code and EVERYBODY comes.

I've been on 2 codes in 3 days and both had 10 + responders, not counting supervision.

I had my doubts about the new system too, but based on what I've seen, I'm happy with it. We still have the emergency response officers available for certain functions (like cell extractions and dealing with my afore-mentioned special-person.) I just haven't seen any evidence of the system not working. If anything, I'm seeing MORE people respond to codes (where they used to just sit on their butts and say, "oh SRT will handle it, no need for me to help.)

Also a lot of these new people are still scared of inmates because in the past they never had to deal with "special people." Now, everyone is pulling their weight and those people are having to learn to deal with volatile people and emergency situations. It's good for them. We should all know how to "handle up" and not have to rely on SRT to fix our problems.

And of course, we all know the officers who would rile stuff up and then depend on SRT to bail them out when someone got assaultive. Now that EVERYONE is getting to play with the crazy folks, people are being a little more considerate about stirring junk up on purpose.

Bottom line: Everybody should know how to do their job and deal with situations. I understand having a set number of people who are OC certified and all that, but having an SRT just gave certain officers an excuse to hide behind their desks and never learn how to deal with stuff.

We all make the same pay and went to the same academy. There's no reason to NEED an SRT. We should all be capable of doing what needs done, whether its running a pod, being on relief, or wrestling with feces-covered mental people.

Too many of these folks want to sit behind their desk, talk on their phone, and worry about how their nails look while SRT did all the dirty work (and for no extra pay, I might mention.) Well, now they have to get off their butts and get dirty too. I think it's great.

Back when I started, we didn't have SRT. We did have PERT but we still had the average officer doing a lot of the "dirty work" and that's a good thing. They need to know how to handle themselves and they'll only learn by experience.

Nowadays, we have a ton of officers who are scared of inmates and scared to fight because they've never had to put their hands on one. "Oh SRT will do it! I don't have to be in any danger!" 'Bout time everyone started pulling their weight, IMO.

As for cuffs and OC, neither was ever standard gear for non-rank. This isn't a prison and you can't just go around spraying people haphazardly. I really feel that spraying someone is a decision best left for rank. How often do we spray folks anyway? On our shift, I doubt it happens 3x a week, and never as an immediate response (it always starts out with officers talking to the person, rank talking to the person, calling for the camera, waiting for the camera to show up, doing a introduction on the video camera, and THEN (an hour after the start of the problem) that person gets sprayed. No reason why anyone other than supervisors need OC. We certainly don't need it up in GP, because many of our officers don't have the sense to understand when it's truly justified. Really the only place I've even seen it used is in special management, when someone won't cuff up for a cell check or something. It's almost never used as an immediate reaction. They usually get numerous direct orders from rank before OC is utilzed. There's certainly plenty of time to allow for rank to show up on the scene, and therefore no reason for the average officer to be carrying it.

It wouldn't hurt for people to carry cuffs, and I'm not really sure on why they won't let us...but I do know that only a small fraction of officers ever carried them to begin with, most of whom didn't work in GP.

The biggest problem I see here at our dept is that people are resistant to change. ANY change just must be a bad change. They bad mouth it before they give it time to see if it'll work.

I don't know how long the OP has been with our dept, but if you're new, let me tell you this: :Stuff changes. It changes a lot. Stressing over it is totally pointless because next month it's going to be something different.

There's been lots of major changes that everyone said would be the end of the world, and so far none of them have caused major incidents. I can still remember the uproar over doing away with midnight rack time and the implementing of "elevator trustees." Neither killed us, though plenty of people seemed sure it would.

I've heard a lot of folks whining about the doing away with SRT. I tell them the same thing I tell whiney inmates. "Put your big girl panties on, and deal with it."

[SPC-1]

WOW! You have alot to say about this.

[JMTX]

Yes I do

I just get a little annoyed when some little change happens and people freak out with the "OHMYGODS SOMEONE IS GOING TO GET KILLED!!!!" stuff. Can we say "over-reactive?"

Yes, I had my doubts about this new way of doing stuff too, and I vocalized them...but I've given it a chance, and I think it's working just fine.

Most of those who freak out over changes are newer folks and they just don't understand how often stuff changes here. Eventually, they will learn that if they want to keep their sanity, they'd best stop stressing over it, lol!

[safadoretornado]

As for cuffs and OC, neither was ever standard gear for non-rank. This isn't a prison and you can't just go around spraying people haphazardly. I really feel that spraying someone is a decision best left for rank. How often do we spray folks anyway? On our shift, I doubt it happens 3x a week, and never as an immediate response (it always starts out with officers talking to the person, rank talking to the person, calling for the camera, waiting for the camera to show up, doing a introduction on the video camera, and THEN (an hour after the start of the problem) that person gets sprayed. No reason why anyone other than supervisors need OC. We certainly don't need it up in GP, because many of our officers don't have the sense to understand when it's truly justified. Really the only place I've even seen it used is in special management, when someone won't cuff up for a cell check or something. It's almost never used as an immediate reaction. They usually get numerous direct orders from rank before OC is utilzed. There's certainly plenty of time to allow for rank to show up on the scene, and therefore no reason for the average officer to be carrying it.

It wouldn't hurt for people to carry cuffs, and I'm not really sure on why they won't let us...but I do know that only a small fraction of officers ever carried them to begin with, most of whom didn't work in GP.

Boy am I glad I don't work in your facility... Where I work every officer has cuffs and Freeze +P... All it technically takes for us to spray somebody is non-compliance with orders from an officer (though I wouldn't do it generally unless they are acting in a threatening manner), and I think it makes sense- yeah, it feels like bobbing for french fries for a few minutes but a lot fewer people get seriously injured when spray has been used (including the inmate). If we had to go hands on because of a fight or whatever and had to wait for a sargeant to bring any spray then both inmates and officers would end up getting hurt a lot more often. Spray doesn't have any permanent effects, and is there as an alternative to other uses of force. I've already had to spray two people and I've only worked there since July... both times the OC spray ended the confrontation without any serious injuries.

[TX_CO]

At TDCJ every Officer has OC, cuffs depending on assignment and all are trained to do cell extractions, riot control, fire fighting, etc. When the call "Officer Fight" goes out on the radio, all available staff responds and someone is about to have a really bad day.

Not giving your staff the tools to perform even the basic functions is dangerous and very short sighted on the part of administrators.

[SHU]

It could be worse. Try 96 or 156 i/ms per one officer with no equipment whatsoever and no response team. If their is an emergency were are lucking if 5 people show up on 4 to 12 tour. The I/Ms let us run the joint. They can take it anytime they want...But that goes for any joint. Even the ones with enough staff.

[Hack]

On our watches, if anything happens we are all trained responders in basic DCT tactics, but we don't train near enough like those on the actual teams do. I have had upwards of around four to five hundred on my own at a camp, and over three hundred in housing unit on my own. I can't say I care for it.

[JMTX]

I just think that all officers should be equally capable of handling themselves.

Most of those complaining haven't been around long to remember when SRT didn't exist and you had to fight your own battles, rather than sit by your control panel and wait for SRT to show up and clean up your messes.

We went decades without a certified response team and did just fine.(No I haven't been here for decades, but I have family that has.)

The closest thing we had was PERT, and that was usually just the biggest, meanest looking relief officers on shift for that night.

I think they were actually better than SRT. SRT has all these physical training requirements....result? Tiny guys and gals who could pass those PT requirement made SRT. Sure they can run and do push ups, but some of them weren't so tough looking. Bring back the days when you had to weigh 275lbs+ to be on PERT and the inmates froze when they walked in because they just looked so darned scary!

None of those men could have made it on SRT of course. They were all far to big to run miles or do push ups. But boy, I sure miss 'em!