Monroe County, Michigan

State Police Special Unit Training Here Next Week 

 A group of highly skilled members of a Michigan State Police unit will be training in Monroe County this week and two Black­hawk helicopters will be in the sky at times during the events. 

Sgt. Bret C. Smith, who once served at the Mon­roe post, said the four-day operation will include vari­ous scenarios at several lo­cations, including Dundee, the Federal Correctional Institution at Milan, the Fermi 2 nuclear power plant and the Petersburg State Game Area. 

The unit is called the Emergency Support Team, which is similar to a SWAT team, and is used in many situations, including those involving hostages, rob­beries, barricaded gun­men, terrorist acts and drug raids. In fact, an ES team was at the scene of a suspected meth lab that was raided last week at Oakridge Estates Mobile Home Park. 

Sgt. Smith, who is sta­tioned in Detroit, said up to 85 state police person­nel and local emergency responders will be partici­pating in the drills, which will run Monday through Thursday.

The team last trained in Monroe County in 2009. Sgt. Smith said the area has various types of to­pography as well as rural and urban settings, which makes it ideal for training. 

“Monroe County offers a lot of training opportu­nities,” Sgt. Smith said. “It has a very good combina­tion of environment and structures.”

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