County SRT set to attend SWAT training

By Staff
Melissa Dozier-Cason FCT Staff Writer
The Franklin County Special Response Team will be attending Advanced SWAT Training at the Law Enforcement Academy at Jacksonville State University Nov. 13-16 in Anniston.
Two officers from Red Bay Police Department, four officers from Russellville Police Department, three officers from the Franklin County Sheriff's Department, and one officer from the District Attorney's office are scheduled to attend the training session, Chris Hargett, Russellville Police Chief, said.
It is essential that police officers be prepared for almost every situation. Therefore, each officer is required to receive a minimum of 12 hours of training per year.
"We need to get as much training as we can so we will be ready when the need arrives," Red Bay Police Chief Pat Creel said.
While the minimum amount of training is only 12 hours per year, many officers opt to get more training, which makes them better police officers, Creel said.
All Russellville police officers have at least 20 hours as of July 2006. However, Chief Hargett reported that some officers have as much as 92, 86 and 42 hours of training.
Chief Creel reports that his officers have more than 12 hours as well. Red Bay expanded their police training in December 2004, when Creel became police chief, to better prepare the police officers for serious situations.
Phil Campbell Police Chief Merrell Potter said that his officers also receive more than the 12 mandatory hours, but mostly have to pursue training during their time off because they are a small police force. Phil Campbell has two full time officers and three part time officers.
Both Creel and Hargett agree that SRT is a valuable asset to county's law enforcement team. Without our own SRT, local police departments would have to call wait for a team from Florence to arrive on the scene of serious situations.
The SRT was established in 2005 in order to better protect the county against serious situations such as bomb threats and hostage situations, Deputy EMA Director Roy Gober said.
The training course will address tactics, techniques and procedures and hostage rescue. The course will also re-enforce skills with exercises for each training concept. Basic SWAT is mandatory for everyone who attends, according to course description.