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Pryor Patrolmen Kevin Trammel, Doug Barham, and Jason Cummings practice techniques to secure the hallway of a public building. Pryor Police Sgt. Shawn Cummings, while members of the CN Marshal Service observe.

TAHLEQUAH, OK - The Cherokee Nation Marshal Service recently trained the Pryor Police Department's Special Operations Teams on a series of dangerous situations that they may encounter in their community. A special operations team is used in situations where there is a hostage, shots have been fired in a public place, or when a fugitive has fled the area.

"The Pryor Police Department asked us to help train them," said Sgt. Garland Thompson, Cherokee Nation Marshal Service. "They are a newly formed special operations team."

The Cherokee Nation Marshal Service offers training to the officers in all of the communities where they have cross-deputized agreements. Officers from Mayes, Delaware, and Craig counties have taken advantage of the training so far.

"Helping another team is good training for us," Thompson said. "It helps us to help other people. If we ever have a situation where a special operations team would be needed, multi-agencies would respond. This is exactly the kind of training that we need to be doing, since we will all be working together."

The Pryor police officers that attended the military styletraining by the Cherokee Nation Marshal Service were: Col. James Blower, Sgts. Shawn Cummings and Joe Garnett, Patrolmen Jason Cummings, Doug Barham, and Kevin Tramel, and tactical advisor, Gene Beck.

"We learned basic tactics and new things that are occurring in the world today, forcing agencies to handle new situations," said Sgt. Cummings with the Pryor Police department. "Safety wise, for our community, it helps Pryor a lot for us to be able to train with the Marshals like this."

The training was conducted in the empty dorm buildings on the campus of Sequoyah High School. "The empty dorm rooms made a good location. There's lots of obstacles, stairwells, and things that buildings in this area have," Thompson said.

The Cherokee Nation Marshal Service conducts training at least once a mweek. Training ranges from physical fitness training to tactical training. The Cherokee Nation Marshal Service uses several locations for training including Sequoyah High School, Jay Public School, and the W.W. Keeler Tribal Complex.

"It's important to be ready for any situation that may occur, and sufficient training helps us do that," said Shannon Buhl, member of the Cherokee Nation Marshal Service's Special Operations Team.