LANSING. Mich. – The Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC) Emergency Response Team (ERT) took First Place in the overall team competition at this year’s Mock Riot in Moundsville, West Virginia. They competed against over 32 other teams from 12 different countries, eventually beating last year’s champion – Lee County, Florida, and former Mock Riot Champion and current Asian SWAT champion Singapore SPEAR Force. Michigan’s team finished with a commanding 10-point margin over the second place finisher.
Results by category were: First Place – Search and Clear Drill, Second Place – Low-Light Shooter Drill, Second Place – Disturbance Control, Second Place – Team Shooting Match and Third Place – Team Obstacle Course.
The winning team consisted of Team Leaders Scott Grinnell – Michigan Reformatory (Ionia) and Kris Maddox – Ernest C. Brooks Correctional Facility (Muskegon), Jay Whitman – Thumb Correctional Facility (Lapeer), Richard Drabek – Ionia Correctional Facility, Joel Wiard – Muskegon Correctional Facility, Clint Slusser – MDOC Ret. (Ionia) and Jake Poindexter – Isabella County Parole/Probation.
In the Super SWAT Individual Competition, recently retired MDOC Corrections Officer Clint Slusser of the Ionia Complex took Third Place and Joel Wiard of Muskegon Correctional Facility took Fifth Place. Super SWAT is a grueling competition composed of several differentemergency response drills.
The MDOC implemented the ERT concept in 1997 and today the Department supports over 350 employees trained to serve on Emergency Response Teams assigned throughout the prison system. These specially trained teams deal with a variety of situations both inside correctional facilities and in the community. Examples include controlling disruptive prisoners, stopping prison disturbances, completing cell extractions, escapee apprehension, search and recovery efforts and other special assignments in support of state and local law enforcement.
