The really bad guys the rapists,

murderers, drug dealers don't often turn themselves in. Typically, the

cops have to sniff them out.

That means entering a situation

where death lurks around the corner of a narrow hallway or on the other

side of a closed door. When the body-armored, pistol-pointing officers

burst in the front door, they have no way of knowing where all the weapons

are in the house.

"Get out of the closet!

Get out of the closet right now!" barks one of the entry team members.

"Get out and put your hands where I can see them! Drop the gun!"

It can be a recipe for disaster.

But by taking precautions, law enforcement officers can increase the chances

that no one gets hurt during these tense situations.

That's why local probation

officers and Fayette sheriff's deputies took part in a special course

in high-risk warrant searches last week: to reduce the risk on themselves

along with the good and bad folks they encounter on such raids.

"One of them could be

saying, 'I'm not going to jail for the rest of my life. I'm going to take

out as many cops as I can,'" warned Carlos F. Ortiz, an instructor

with the Georgia Police Academy, who taught the course. "Your goal

is to go in there and arrest the individual without violence."

The best way for the officers

to keep themselves and others from being injured or killed is to be prepared,

be alert and be smart, Ortiz said.

Being smart involves avoiding

"fatal funnels" that give a gunman more body surface area to

shoot at, such as the middle of a doorway.

Instead, officers are encouraged

to peer around the edge of the door in a cautious manner if possible.

As each suspect is encountered,

orders are barked loudly and clearly: "Put your hands up! Let me

see your hands! Now get down on your knees and stay there!"

Meanwhile, other officers lie

in wait for those wanting to escape from other areas of the home. Rooms

are cleared one by one until the entire house has been searched.

The State Probation Office

of the Griffin Judicial Circuit originally sought the training for its

new POSSE (Probation Office Strategic Search Effort) team, and local sheriff's

departments expressed interest in participating also, said Bill Larkey,

chief probation officer.

The probation office wants

to cooperate more with local officials in finding suspects who have absconded,

Larkey said. Currently, the Fayette County Sheriff's Office serves all

the probation violation warrants here, and the state probation office

appreciates that, he said.

"If they didn't do that,

our probation services wouldn't be as effective," Larkey added. "...

We just want to assist them when it's proper."

Warden Ed Sanders at West Central

State Prison in Zebulon graciously agreed to host the course, providing

classroom space and an abandoned building to use in drills, Larkey said.

The Pike County Board of Education also allowed the use of a school building

that was being renovated, which gave the officers a chance to work on

clearing classrooms and hallways during potentially dangerous situations,

Larkey added.

Officers would enter the structures

armed with specially designed handguns loaded with paint-tipped bullets

to shoot at suspects if necessary. Participants also wore face and neck

guards along with body armor to take the "sting" out of the

bullets.

After each entry, the teams'

techniques were evaluated by Ortiz.

"This really makes us

more aware of the types of dangerous situations we might encounter,"

Larkey said.

The training was scheduled

months before an Atlanta police officer was killed during a raid on a

drug house, officials said. The Georgia Police Academy provides training

year-round free of charge to state police officers thanks to a federal

grant program through the Governor's Criminal Justice Coordinating Council,

Ortiz noted.

"We want to provide the

officers with tools and techniques to make them successful," Ortiz

said.

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