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S.O.R.T. |
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Special Operations Response Team |
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In today’s society, narcotics related search warrants of places inhabited by well armed individuals, armed barricaded subjects, and hostage situations are no longer just a big city problem. These problems and others are finding their way into smaller communities. Recognizing that the presence of a highly trained and skilled police tactical unit has been shown to substantially reduce the risk of injury or loss of life to citizens, police officers and suspects; and recognizing that a well managed “team” response to critical incidents usually results in the successful resolution of critical incidents, the need for a specialized team of officers to counter and solve these types of incidents was recognized by the City of Myrtle Beach. In response to these trends, in 2003, the Myrtle Beach Police Department formed a Special Operations Response Team (SORT) to deal with the increase in high risk warrant service, hostage incidents, and barricaded and/or violent armed individuals. Our philosophy was to train, equip, and maintain a unit that could effectively resolve these incidents by gaining maximum control with minimum force.
Our current 13 member team is made up of officers from throughout the department with various duty assignments that are on-call 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Three of our tactical officers are certified medics. Officers selected for the team must be highly motivated and a devoted team player. The team trains to be prepared for a variety of situations including High Risk Warrant Service, Barricaded Subject(s), hostage/crisis negotiation-hostage rescue, and building/vehicle assaults.
Team members train monthly as a team as well as receiving various individual training. Training ranges from physical fitness to a variety of call-out scenarios using role players, which allow us to incorporate our hostage /crisis negotiators into the training.
MISSION STATEMENT:
Recognizing that the presence of a highly trained, highly skilled police tactical unit has been shown to substantially reduce the risk of injury or loss of life to citizens, police officers and suspects; and recognizing that a well managed “team” response to critical incidents usually results in successful resolution of critical incidents, it is the intent of the Myrtle Beach Police Department S.O.R.T. Team to provide a highly trained and skilled tactical team as a resource for the Myrtle Beach Police Department in the handling of critical incidents.
© Copyright 2004, The City of Myrtle Beach. All rights reserved. |
