Sniper training is an integral component of law enforcement, military forces, and civilian life alike. Snipers provide invaluable overwatch services as well as hunting and target shooting capabilities that benefit various tasks.
Snipers can also be deployed for anti-terrorism operations at high-profile events like sporting matches. Snipers have long been an integral component of security at such large-scale sporting matches; often found positioned throughout the stands or other key spots throughout a stadium.
Sports are competitive activities requiring physical agility and skill, typically governed by rules approved by a nationally-recognized sanctioning body. Their aim is to determine the winner using either objective or subjective measures: objective criteria may include timing an event like running a race and distance between competitors at its completion; more subjective measurements might include judges awarding points based on technical performance of competitors.
Police snipers trained for deployment at public venues like the Super Bowl are trained to recognize and neutralize a wide variety of threats to crowd safety, such as terrorist acts involving PBIED or VBIED devices. Furthermore, these police snipers may serve as quick reaction force (QRF) teams within stadiums during an event like this one.
Police snipers from across the nation converged on Arizona for training at TacFlow Academy’s Sniper School. Instructors provided instruction at Hard Rock Stadium while students practiced live fire on various targets inside and around the venue from club level, catwalks, vertically down ramps and out to parking lot using KF Armory stadium bullet traps designed to absorb all.308 Winchester shots to reduce ricochets and spalling.
Experienced police snipers will gain confidence in their ability to deploy to sporting events with confidence and provide proactive overwatch protection from active shooters, PBIED or VBIED devices. The course follows a crawl, walk and run progression to maximize student learning capacity while teaching advanced tactical skills. Students will learn about identifying threats, the need for coordination with air assets, coveringt/overt hides establishment and their final firing position (FFP).
SRT Arizona deployed snipers to the Super Bowl as part of local mission requests and overwatch capability during critical incidents. Their work was supported by their partners from U.S. Customs & Border Protection Air & Marine Operations who trained alongside SRT Arizona on helicopter rope suspension techniques.
Colt Serrano