Webster Co. Sheriff’s Department starts Special Response Team

The Sheriff's Department hopes their trained, volunteer response team will help emergency response.

WEBSTER COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – The Webster County Sheriff’s Department is taking high-pressure training to another level.

“We’ve never had nothing like this in Webster County. And really, it’s a special thing and we’re taking it serious,” Sheriff David Gore.

Law enforcement officers are trained to handle difficult and dangerous situations. Webster County Sheriff David Gore started the S.R.T., the Special Response Team, in his department to add more protection to the region.

“We had a prolonged shoot-out about 3 or 4 years ago. We have had things here, maybe not on a larger scale as other parts of the country, but they need the same protection, the school children, the people, the businesses, and so forth, they need the same protection that bigger counties, and bigger states and bigger cities have,” Gore said.

Sheriff Gore put the volunteer-based team together almost a year ago. And Chief Deputy J.C. Smith said he sees its potential while they train.

“We will have a set training day, whether it be medical or tactical. The instructors that week will have a training plan and when we arrive, we go through our routines and we see about getting the training done,” Smith said.

Because the Sheriff’s department is small, Sheriff Gore and Chief Deputy Smith said the program is open to anyone who wants to help respond to calls.

“I talked to a few people about, not necessarily being on the team but utilizing them as a training resource, and after discussing what we were trying to do and how we were trying to do it, they said they wanted to be a part of it, so they came on board,” Smith said.

“We have a doctor, we have a nurse, we have a trained EMT and we have an I.T. guy. And we have tried to address the areas that we know that we’re going to, if we do have something we have to deal with, we’ll have to face,” Smith.

While the Special Response Team is trained for high-pressure situations, Chief Deputy Smith says the team’s main priority is to educate the community on how to respond in an emergency situation either medically or tactically.

“Having more confidence in your ability to deal with stress and your ability to handle a firearm, your ability to deal with people because competence breeds confidence,” Smith said.

“It’s been really easy as far as getting people to want to be a part of this,” Gore said.

There are currently 15 people on the response team and the department hopes to grow in the future.