Bad News for Bad Guys

Press-Herald photo/Kristi Richie
Clyde Stanley of Clyde Stanley’s Karate and Self Defense demonstrates a way to control "suspect" DEA Agent Keith Billiot during a training session with the Drug Enforcement Administration and Shreveport Police Department SWAT Team.

DEA, Shreveport SWAT train in Minden

Kristi Richie
Mindin Press-Hearld City Editor

The Shreveport Police Department SWAT team and Shreveport Office of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration were in Minden and Dixie Inn Friday, but it wasn’t for anything criminal related.
The teams were training with local martial arts instructor Clyde Stanley on tactical take downs, building searches and vehicle containment.
The more than 20 agents began at Stanley’s karate studio, trading tips with each other and learning from Stanley as well.

The DEA and SWAT teams train together at least once per month, but this was the first time the two teams have trained in Minden with Stanley. The agencies work together on a weekly basis during the course of their everyday narcotics investigations and literally place their lives in each other’s hands.
"The long hours that we spend together, both on the street and in training pays off in so many ways," DEA Resident Agent in Charge Keith D. Billiot said. "We benefit, they benefit, and ultimately the citizens benefit by virtue of having highly trained teams that are integrated, and therefore better able to handle any multitude of dangerous situations that may arise."
SWAT Team Leader Troy Skeesick said all team members were impressed with and appreciative of Stanley’s efforts and expertise.
"I really enjoyed it. Any type of training like that is always welcome," he said. "I think Clyde is really knowledgeable. We always have fun going somewhere else, and we always come away with something."

After tactical training at the karate school, the group went to a vacant trailer in the Dixie Inn trailer park for mock building searches.
Stanley and his student Dustin Gunderson donned protective gear and served as "bad guys" during different training scenarios with simunition, a paintball-type of bullet used in training.
"We had a blast. It was fun getting to be the bad guy," Stanley said of his first experience being a "suspect." "They don’t do that much hand-to-hand stuff, but I think they learned a lot."

Stanley regularly trains with the DEA, and the SWAT team will definitely return to Minden for more training with the martial arts expert.
"What separates Clyde from many other instructors is his ability to teach techniques that are amazingly effective in such a short period of time," Billiot said. "We might learn a technique from him in the morning and then use it on a bad guy the same night. I consider Clyde to be a ‘close quarters combat consultant.’"
The SWAT and DEA teams work together on numerous cases, so any joint training is beneficial. The SWAT team serves numerous narcotics warrants, sometimes as many as 15 each week. They also respond to hostage situations, barricaded suspects and serve homicide and burglary warrants.
"We’re together a lot," Skeerick said. "There are eight to 10 of us together at any given time, and we still mess up. They (the DEA) do things the way they do, and we do things the way we do, but this training keeps us all together. It’s good because everybody works together. A lot of times we’re dealing with the same people, and you have to have this communication."

Local officers will soon have the opportunity to train with Stanley and the DEA team. Stanley and Billiot have coordinated and conducted training with other law enforcement agencies in the past such as the Minden and Dixie Inn Police Departments and are currently planning a joint training session with those two agencies as well as the Webster Parish Sheriff’s Office.