Security funds help update equipment

New vests should protect deputies from high-powered weapons.
By D.A. WILKINSON
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
LISBON -- Columbiana County has upgraded its special response team's equipment with Homeland Security funds.
Sheriff David L. Smith said that the county's team is as up to date as any in Ohio.
A terrorist attack in the state may seem improbable, but Smith said that at meetings to discuss security, "We've repeatedly been told Ohio is a high-target area."
In practical terms, the department needed new equipment.
Smith credited the county's Emergency Management Agency with getting the $16,000 in federal funds.
The special-response team is made up of eight deputy sheriffs and one officer from each from the Salineville and New Waterford police departments.
Putting funds to use
The funds were used to obtain:
U Twelve AR-16 fully automatic rifles. Those purchases, along with previously obtained automatic rifles, mean each deputy's cruiser will carry an automatic rifle and a shotgun. A deputy, Wes Smith, no relation to the sheriff, was sent for training in use of the AR-16 rifles. He in turn will train the deputies.
UTen new portable radios with ear pieces and microphones.
UTen new "heavy-entry" protective vests. "These are the most modern to date," Smith said. The sheriff's office added steel plates to the vests to reduce injury from even the most high-powered rifles. The radios can be attached to the vests. Other compartments can be added to the vests to carry a variety of equipment.
UA very small folding ladder that can be used to enter second-floor windows or climb fences. "We've been wanting one for some time," Smith said.
U A "body bunker," which is a long curved shield that protects an officer. Smith said the department had purchased one about a year ago. With the pair of shields, he said, "We should have pretty good cover for dangerous entry situations."
U Twenty-four gas masks that can be used with a variety of filters and other equipment to deal with tear gas, dangerous chemicals in methamphetamine laboratories and some low-level radiation.
The team does not go into another police department's jurisdiction unless asked, the sheriff said.
The team was started in 1989 after a hostage situation at the county jail. But it has been called out for drug busts, hostage situations and other situations.
wilkinson@vindy.com