When both Lima Police Chief Kevin Martin and Allen County Sheriff Matt Treglia were looking into purchasing vehicles for each of their SWAT teams, they realized just how expensive that would be. This sparked the idea of combining the two. The agencies have already proved success of this in the past, by merging multiple safety forces. They include the West Central Ohio Crime Task Force, Regional Bomb Squad, and Dive Team.
“I think we have one of the best relationships, Chief and I, that we’ve had in several years with the Lima Police Department and the Allen County Sheriff’s Office," Treglia explains. "And like I said, we have several teams that are already combined. This was just another team that we started to look at that actually is very expensive to train and equip, and we thought about it for a little bit and decided ‘hey this would be another good idea to merge this team together.’”
The new SWAT teams will start with four officers from LPD and 12 from the Sheriff's office. Training from the Ohio Tactical Officers Association will be administered monthly to keep these teams prepared for whatever comes their way.
“Currently our team the way it sits has about 80 operations a year with about 8-10 of them being hostage barricade situations," says Treglia. "I know that some people may think that the SWAT team is a little bit of overkill at times, but when you need a SWAT team, you’re going to wish you had a SWAT team. And this county and this city is big enough that we can maintain a team of this nature constantly.”
The individual SWAT teams are already equipped with new vests every five years, amounting to $50,000. Not to mention the cost of training and overtime. But by joining forces, one goal is to save hundreds of thousands of dollars over the long run.
“By combining the two teams, again we’re wanting to look for the best way that we can make sure that we have effective service provided when a tactical team or a SWAT team would be necessary," Martin explains. "While at the same time though, hopefully being able to free up funds for both agencies, so that those funds then can be utilized for other police services that are also vital to this community.”
The departments are bringing a petition forward to Lima City Council on Monday in hopes of getting the consolidation approved.
