By Don Rush
In Mike Solwold’s eyes, you can never
have too much training.
The Oxford Village Police Chief was
one of the first, first responders to the mass
shooting at Oxford High School last Nov.
30 and when the opportunity arose to have
more training, here in Oxford he took it.

“Officer Rob Chupick and Reserve offi-
cer Gene Faermark came to me in Decem-
ber after the Oxford High School tragedy,”

Solwold said. “The asked if they could
arrange for this specific training, would I
approve it? My response was to make it
happen. Our department has been through
similar training in the past but there never
too much training.”
The gears in motion turned into four days
of training at Daniel Axford Elementary
School last week.
The training was by members of the
United States Department of Homeland
Security.
“We’re training techniques and tactics for
individual, single officers who are on scene
with an active situation. Not all times it’s an
active shooter,” instructor Robert “Bobby”
Drinkwater said on day four of the training.
“Whether it’s an active shooter, or someone
with a knife. The tactics we’re teaching
this week is for that single officer to go in,
instead of waiting for a SWAT team. The quicker we can get in, the quicker we neu-
tralize the situation. With this training we’re

trying to mitigate as much of the danger – to
the officers themselves and victims – as we
can. We cannot get rid of all the danger, but
with proper training we can mitigate it.”
Ten Oxford PD officers, including Chief
Solwold, five Oakland County Sheriff’s
deputies, members of the Michigan State

Police, FBI, Midland County Sheriff’s of-
fice, Cadillac Police Department and Med-
star Ambulance, about 20 in all, attended

the training. According to both Drinkwater
and Solwold, each of the first three days
were training for certain scenarios; each
day “the heat” was turned up until the final
day when the trainees needed to use all their
new education.

Trainees were taught not only how to ap-
proach active threats, but also how to treat

wounds, on themselves and victims. On the
last day of training, role-players, students
and members of the community, were
staged with various open “wounds” in the
hallways and classrooms of Daniel Axford.
As a group the trainees were placed in

a room and “briefed” on an active situa-
tion at an elementary school. One by one,

by themselves and “armed” with Airsoft
pistols and long-guns, trainees entered
the hallway with weapons ready. Under
the watchful eyes of Homeland Security
trainers, the officers moved down the halls,
checked on victims, found where the
“bad guy” was and moved on. They were
taught what to say to dispatchers, victims
and weapon-wielding perpetrators. After
each scenario, they moved to the next.
All day long.
“ When you walk in, and you realize this
is real, it’s amazing. All of a sudden you
only have tunnel vision,” Soldwold said,
remembering back to Nov. 30. “We can
never have too much training. Bad guys
don’t have to worry about anything. We
have to worry about everything. We have
to worry about keeping ourself safe, so we
can help others. The radios are squawking.
Alarms and lights. There’s screaming.
We have to worry about all that and keep
moving.”
As host department, Oxford PD had
to get the ball rolling. Make contact with
different law agencies, provide a location,
food and set up equipment.
“We reached out to Principal (Chad)
Boyd at Daniel Axford Elementary to ask

if we could use his school as a training lo-
cation,” Solwold said. “His response was

an easy yes. From there, we reached out to
local surrounding agencies to join in for the
training. We gained valuable training and a
great partnership with Homeland Security
for future training and it was free.”
Solwod said the training was valuable.

“We can’t get enough of it. We need to
stay on our toes and be ready for another
incident. Especially in today’s world it’s not
a matter of if but when a tragedy occurs. As
police we are constantly training and must
stay prepared so this was a no brainer when
it was brought to me for approval.”
Solwold also wanted to make sure to
thank all involved.
“I want to thank the instructors for their

outstanding work,” he said. “Principal
Boyd. The kitchen staff for providing
breakfast everyday and a lunch on the last
day. One of the instructors commented that
they have never seen this much hospitality
and even said ‘it appears you guys are very
well liked in this community.’ Also thanks

to Officer Rob Chupick and Reserve Of-
ficer Gene Faermark for making this all happen.”