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KIRKSVILLE, MO. -- They are called out at times of emergency, heavily armed officers in special gear trained to take control of a serious situation.

They are Kirksville’s Special Response Team also known as S.R.T and for this week’s Citizens’ Police Academy, students discovered what their job is all about.

And what better way to start Tuesday night’s class than with a bang, and that’s exactly what happened as some of the officers demonstrated what a flash bang grenade is used for.

In case you were wondering, it’s used as a distraction device.

Not only did students in the class see first hand what type of equipment is used by S.R.T, they also had a chance to try it themselves.

Everything from a shot gun used for less lethal bean bag rounds, to their hazmat suits to their protective armor and shields.

“We allowed the students to put on the equipment as well as use some of it that way it gives them an idea on exactly what we do and how heavy some of this equipment is and what its like to wear it for several hours at a time and train in it,” said Tim King the Deputy Chief of the Kirksville Police Department and Commander of S.R.T.

And for some getting a chance to shoot one of the shot guns was quite the experience.

“It was actually quite scary, I’ve never shot a gun before and that one was really loud and had a little bit of a kick to it so it was a different scary,” said participant Ashley Kimmel.

“Well it’s a little bigger than a normal shot gun and it kicked a little bit more, but it was a lot of fun,” said participant Larry Frost.

S.R.T was established back in 1997 with only eight Kirksville Police Officers. Today there is a commander, a team leader, 8 Kirksville Police Officers and 5 Adair County Sheriff’s Deputies on the squad.

Students learned about different types of situations these officers are trained for and how they put a plan in place with the gear they have before being activated to a scene.

“You know we're sitting here in Northeast Missouri and it could take a long time for people to respond and help us, so we need to be able to take care of ourselves and this community,” King said. “And I think the incident at the Catholic Church a couple of days ago just shows you that we need to be able to respond to those situations and deal with them and keep the community safe.”

And according to King, the squad gets activated on average about 12 times per year.

“In movies you might see them deploy swat teams all the time and different things may go wrong and it’s not to say that something couldn’t happen and go wrong here with us, but we try very hard to make sure we minimize those possibilities and keep our community safe,” King said.