Chatham County Sheriff's Office and Police Dept. expand SWAT through municipal partnerships

The Chatham County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO) and Chatham County Police Department (CCPD) plan on sending a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to four surrounding cities to allow officers in those municipalities to join its part-time SWAT unit, according to multiple CCSO and CCPD officials.

The Chatham County Special Weapons and Tactics, or Chatham County SWAT, will respond to high-risk incidents that exceed the capabilities of regular police patrol, including armed barricaded subjects, hostage situations, and high-risk warrant service. The four municipalities ― Pooler, Port Wentworth, Garden City and Bloomingdale ― don’t have their own SWAT units. The Town of Thunderbolt declined the offer because it is a smaller agency and no officer expressed interest in the unit.

“This will definitely help us with our manpower,” said Chatham-Savannah Counter Narcotics Team (CNT) Assistant Director Dan Flood, who serves as the Team Commander of the Chatham County SWAT Unit. “I don't want to say we're not able to do what we want to do, because these guys are extremely dedicated. But it's always good to be able to rotate things.”

Typically, Flood said, eight SWAT unit members are on call. This change allows him to put 12 SWAT unit members on call. In total, the county SWAT team currently consists of more than 30 members, including techs, hostage negotiators, entry teams, sniper teams.

The cost is nominal, but Chatham County will be fully funding the unit, except for salaries and overtime, said Flood. “It would be more people to a bigger pool of officers for us to pull. We'd have more people on the team.”

Number of SWAT responses increasing in county

The decision to reach out to municipalities comes as the number of incidents the county SWAT unit has responded to in recent years has increased.

In 2019, the SWAT unit responded to three incidents. In 2020, the county SWAT unit responded to five incidents. In 2021, it responded to eight incidents. In 2022, it responded to 10 incidents. In 2023, it responded to 14 incidents. So far in 2024, the county SWAT unit has responded to one incident.

The Savannah Police Department (SPD) part-time SWAT unit responds to more incidents, according to preliminary figures sent by SPD Public Information Officer Neil Penttila. In 2019, SPD SWAT responded to 92 incidents. In 2020, SPD responded to 67 incidents. In 2021, SPD responded to 51 incidents. In 2022, SPD responded to 63 incidents. In 2023, SPD responded to 55 incidents. So far in 2024, SPD has responded to 11 incidents.

There wasn’t one incident that spurred the change, but the group of law enforcement chiefs and commanders cited a few incidents that highlighted the need to look into a larger SWAT unit.

Flood cited the Nov. 30, 2022, active shooter hoax at Savannah High School. Flood said the Chatham County SWAT unit helped assist the SPD SWAT unit, in case “there was another incident or they had any kind of call up.”

Flood also cited the Dec. 14, 2022, active shooter at Fort Argyle Road. According to previous reporting by SMN, a man died of an undisclosed medical issue on Tuesday following an hours-long standoff with the Chatham County SWAT team. In that incident, the SPD SWAT unit assisted the Chatham County SWAT unit by responding with a second Bearcat Tactical Armored vehicle.

CCDC Chief Deputy Gary Taylor, meanwhile, cited the incident that occurred more recently at the Amazon warehouse. On Nov. 6, 2023, an unknown caller called the Pooler Police Department saying they were armed inside the facility and were going to shoot people, according to Flood.

“Garden City was out there; Georgia ports was out there. And they were all out there to assist that,” said Taylor. “Nobody took the lead 'til our SWAT team got there and took the lead.”

Savannah High School shooting hoax: After-action report recommends improved communication

When did the conversations to start the new SWAT team start?

The conversations to start a new SWAT unit between CCPD Chief Jeff Hadley and CCSO Sheriff John Wilcher started in 2018. At that time, Hadley said he believed a joint SWAT unit would be a crucial step in “maximizing our manpower.” Hadley added that he and Wilcher knew that they’d eventually want to expand it to surrounding agencies.

“From a practical aspect with our, with all of our staffing shortages, there's no way we if we wanted to have our own just Chatham County Police Department SWAT team; there's no way we could do it,” said Hadley. “We don't have the manpower to do it. So, we are working together and maximizing our independent resources together into a function such that this is just good thinking and it's best for the communities.”

Hadley also said the new SWAT unit will allow officers from the four different law enforcement agencies to join a SWAT unit and use the county’s resources, such as the LENCO BearCat purchased in August 2021. The vehicle cost $350,000 and was funded by the CCSO, CCPD and CNT.

In late 2022, Flood and Assistant Chief Terry D. Shoop, CCPD Head of Field Operations and the Assistant Team Commander of the Chatham County SWAT team, and the Chatham County attorneys, put together the memorandum of understanding (MOU) and sent it to the chiefs of all the municipalities, who then needed to take it to their city managers and city councilmembers.

“It's a work in progress. We didn't just flip a switch and say, ‘Okay, this is when we're gonna do it,'" said Flood.

As soon as the MOUs are signed, the county SWAT unit will hold a tryout, which consists of a physical fitness test, including push-ups, sit-ups, a run, an obstacle course and a shooting test. The county SWAT unit then votes as to whether a candidate would make a quality SWAT officer.

“We pass those names up through the Combat Command Staff into internal affairs to look at their background, and, finally, DNI makes the final decision. There's a lot that goes into the decision making is to take somebody on,” said Flood, who added that he’s not sure when the MOUs will be sent to the county attorneys.

Drew Favakeh is the public safety and courts reporter for the Savannah Morning News. You can reach him at AFavakeh@savannahnow.com.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Chatham County Sheriff's Office, Police Dept. expand SWAT unit