{"id":11255,"date":"2025-03-19T08:53:46","date_gmt":"2025-03-19T14:53:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.westjordan.utah.gov\/?p=11255"},"modified":"2025-03-19T08:53:47","modified_gmt":"2025-03-19T14:53:47","slug":"swat-operator-of-the-year-excellence-embodied-in-casey-bronson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.westjordan.utah.gov\/newsroom\/2025\/03\/swat-operator-of-the-year-excellence-embodied-in-casey-bronson\/","title":{"rendered":"SWAT Operator of the Year – Excellence embodied in Casey Bronson"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Four<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Special Weapons and Tactics: SWAT. Perhaps we need to switch the acronym to STAW, but it doesn’t roll off the tongue as smoothly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SWAT, while known for their fancy gear and weapons, begins with negotiation and communication. They seek to preserve life, not take it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

West Jordan Police Chief Ken Wallentine explains SWAT is \u201csteeped in collaborative communication. They are humble and capable, and rely on one another to develop skill sets and knowledge bases that complement each other.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SWAT officers are summoned for high-risk and hostage confrontations, homicides and tense drug-related crimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey are called to intense and dynamic situations\u2013but they are careful and deliberate communicators,\u201d Wallentine continues. \u201cThey create a space and time that creates options.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In movies, SWAT is often the team that is called upon when extreme force is necessary to control a situation. But force is actually statistically used less often with SWAT than with typical patrol officers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SWAT is a joint assignment in law enforcement in Utah. West Jordan SWAT is combined with Department of Public Safety (DPS) SWAT to form one of the finest teams in the state. Members perform other duties within their police department. Each week they meet for special training and must excel at firearm and tactical skills, and be in excellent physical fitness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a teenager, Casey Bronson didn\u2019t like cops. He got slammed with more than one speeding ticket right after he got his driver’s license. And yet, he was awarded a peer-selected award \u201cSWAT Operator of the Year\u201d in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does it take to get such an award?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Bronson, no one on the team does the bare minimum. Everyone is giving 110% to their training and their daily work. He always saw the award go to \u201cthose who are above that. They facilitate training and train themselves at a phenomenal level. They\u2019re willing to help out the new guys\u2013make them feel comfortable to learn and to ask questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think I did anything different. It\u2019s an honor to get it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SWAT may sound like a group of hardened individuals, armored inside and out. But in West Jordan, according to Casey, the armor is actually their community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen we look at each other, we take a softer approach,\u201d Bronson explained. \u201cIn West Jordan as a whole, everybody is concerned with each other. If you\u2019re not having a good life at work, you\u2019re not going to have a good life at home\u2013It will steamroll into your personal life. We want people to feel comfortable enough to be human.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Patrol and SWAT officers are the front lines to some of the worst-case scenarios, and it could easily be a slippery slope into hopelessness and despair. But not to Bronson. \u201cThe world has bad events. But the world itself is good.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Special Weapons and Tactics: SWAT. Perhaps we need to switch the acronym to STAW, but it doesn’t roll off the tongue as smoothly. 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