New deal among Beaufort County police agencies is a ‘force multiplier.’ What’s changing?
A new agreement between local police agencies will allow all Beaufort County officers to work together with the sheriff’s office on specialized cases.
The newly drafted memorandum of understanding (MOU) will allow officers from Beaufort, Bluffton and Port Royal’s police departments to join the special operations teams of the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office, such as their SWAT Team, K-9 Tracking Team and Violent Crimes Task Force.
Municipality officers wishing to join these teams will apply and complete their training through the county. During incidents that require a special operations response, the newly trained officers will be deployed along with existing county troops.
Sheriff P.J. Tanner told The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette the MOU will serve as a “force multiplier,” allowing for faster and stronger responses within special teams units, which have recently begun receiving calls on a more regular basis.
Tanner stressed that the MOU will not allow city or town police departments to patrol outside of their respective jurisdictions.
Apart from a handful of new uniforms, extra costs related to these updates will be “very minimal,” Tanner said, because the teams and their training programs are already established within the county.
The MOU comes as local agencies continue to support a more collaborative approach to law enforcement. In February, the sheriff’s office announced a proposal for a new headquarters whose plans include a “consolidated communicated center,” a dispatch office encompassing all emergency services for Beaufort, Jasper and Colleton counties.
