The Columbus Police Department’s making a SWAT swap with Fort Benning.
For $35,000, some specialized training and possibly an armored vehicle, the police department’s Special Weapons And Tactics squad will serve as the Army post’s “Special Reaction Team,” responding to hostage situations and other emergencies at Benning, said Police Chief Ricky Boren.
Why?
Why does a military installation equipped with helicopters and tanks need a city SWAT team?
A memo to Columbus Council outlining the one-year contract cites four reasons: The post has a continuous turnover of military police, so its force lacks continuity; it has lost the 988th MP Company, which was transferred to Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri; its 209th Law and Order Detachment has lost personnel; and it so rarely needs a SWAT team that bearing the cost is impractical.
George Steuber, deputy garrison commander at Fort Benning, said the arrangement is a contingency plan for the post, where public safety now is handled by civilian Department of the Army workers.
“As a stop-gap measure to make sure we have a capability if called upon, we are asking the city to provide that capability for us,” Steuber said. “We never used it. It really is a back-up more than anything else. If we have to have it, we’ve got it.”
With Columbus already operating a SWAT team, the contract is better than adding staff or paying overtime, Steuber said.
“This is by far the most cost-effective way to meet that requirement,” the deputy garrison commander said. While responding to emergencies at Benning, the police squad will act under the orders of a military incident commander, Boren said.
He said the squad of about 30 officers has sniper rifles, machine guns, stun grenades, body armor, ballistic shields and riot gear.
The contract with Benning cites these tasks the SWAT team may be assigned on post, he said: rescuing hostages or others captured or endangered by gunfire; resolving standoffs involving barricaded or suicidal suspects and other high-risk situations “with a minimum loss of life, injury or property damage”; and providing added security at special events, such as a visit by the president.
The city finance department will put the $35,000 in an account designated for police use, the chief said.
The armored vehicle
“What we really wanted as a result of this was an armored vehicle,” Boren said. Without Benning’s aid, that could cost $250,000-$300,000, he said. No other area government has one, so Columbus could deploy it to assist other counties.
“If and when we are fortunate enough to receive an armored vehicle, then we will use it not only in Columbus but any other area that we may have to respond to,” Boren said.
Steuber confirmed he and city officials discussed the police department’s using some of the heavier equipment housed on post.
“In the short period of time we had to negotiate, we couldn’t cross all the hurdles, all the legal considerations we have to look at,” he said.
Boren said the city’s arrangement with Benning has other benefits: “We will have access to the ranges at Fort Benning. We will also have access to special training that the military teaches at Fort Benning,” he said.
Police typically use their SWAT team for “high-risk entry” -- raids investigators believe may involve heavily armed suspects, sometimes in drug-related cases, he said.
He said he does not expect the officers to have to handle military ordnance on post.
Fort Benning has its own special munitions unit that deals with explosives.
Steuber noted that city law enforcement already works closely with Fort Benning to monitor the annual School of the Americas Watch protest each November at the Fort Benning Road gate.
“This gives us one more avenue to work together cooperatively to see what we can do in the future,” he said. “It all goes to making the community a safer place to be.”
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