Ashley Rueff, TribLocal reporter

Police and other emergency responders descended on Tinley Park Tuesday, not for a crisis situation, but to practice what to do in high-risk scenarios.

The South Suburban Emergency Response Team (SSERT) took over an abandoned building on the Tinley Park Mental Health Center while at the same time a dignitary protection class, with officers from SSERT, the Chicago Police Department and the Cook County Sheriff’s Office, was in progress a block away at the Tinely Park Fire Department Training Tower. 

Patrick Siemsen, training director for SSERT, said the 183rd Street training facility was a good location for the class because it has a helicopter pad, a large parking lot for driving exercises and a four story building, all which were used during the class.

“The training tower allows us to do entries on multiple levels,” he said. “There’s a lot of different stuff that they can do.”

A block away, 16 of the newest members of SSERT used an abandoned building at the mental health center for training on how to enter a room. Inside, there were posters of victims, bystanders and targets, and they had to quickly break down the situation. 

“This training is repetition, repetition, repetition,” Siemsen said. “It reduces the stress.”

The teams entered a situation with a pit bull at the door, a woman holding a stuffed animal like a gun and a man holding a woman and child hostage. They were aiming for the dog and the man, but by moving too quickly some teams missed the dog and fired on the woman with the stuffed animal.

“This is about moving slow enough to take that shot,” Siemsen said.

SSERT is a multijurisdictional team made up of about 100 members that respond to high-risk situations in 37 south suburban communities, Siemsen said. 

Learning alongside the SSERT members Tuesday was a class of forensic psychology students from the Chicago School of Professional Psychology.

They didn’t shoot at any posters, but they did try on the gear and talk to the officers about what they experience when they respond to emergency calls. 

Student Liz Sobczynski said seeing the training helped her better understand how high-risk situations might affect officers and victims, and what that might mean for her in the field of forensic psychology.

“We learned about the amount of stress they endure,” she said.

 arueff@tribune.com