None of the emergencies were real at the U.S. National SWAT Championships last month in Oklahoma, but of the 23 teams competing it was the Minneapolis SWAT team that fared nearly the best, taking second place. Eight members from the Minneapolis SWAT team traveled to the U.S. Shooting Academy in Tulsa to compete in the three-day championship that began Oct. 19, facing off against other SWAT teams from the U.S., Canada and Germany in such things as the "Barricaded gunman," "Deadstop bus assault," and "Special ops challenge."

When the smoke cleared, the only team with a better score than Minneapolis was the security team from Canada's Bruce Power, a private nuclear generator in Ontario. The Minneapolis team took ninth place last year.

In a separate competition held at the same location, two Minneapolis SWAT officers tied for fifth place out of 31 teams in the U.S. SWAT Sniper Championships held Oct. 17 and 18. Officers Griffin Hillbo and Juan Valencia were tested on their longgun, carbine and pistol skills in a variety of scenarios, according to the U.S. SWAT Sniper Championships website.