KILGORE: Kilgore and Henderson police departments are collaborating to form a unified tactical squad that will serve both cities’ requirements.
At a recent meeting, the Kilgore City Council unanimously approved the move.
Kilgore Police Chief Todd Hunter provided the council with a memorandum of agreement for the formation of the unit.
According to the memorandum presented to council, the plan is “a cooperative effort of the jurisdictions and law enforcement agencies identified herein, for the purpose of creating and maintaining a regional tactical response team of trained, highly-skilled law enforcement personnel, in order to provide a highly proficient.
The initial agreement will endure for a year, after which it will automatically renew for another year, according to the MOU’s terms.
The goal of the unit is to have a highly trained tactical law enforcement squad accessible in both cities at all times. Kilgore has already trained SWAT police as part of a long-term arrangement with Longview to form a joint force.
Henderson Police Chief Chad Taylor, who attended the Kilgore council meeting, is in favor of the plan, and the Henderson City Council approved a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Oct. 20.
“We were supplying the City of Longview with around three cops for almost 20 years,” Hunter added. “Gregg County was providing two cops to the Longview SWAT team, and we would been using this method for quite some time.” We believe it would be more beneficial for us to collaborate with another city of similar size and concerns. I had a wonderful friendship with Taylor, and we would been discussing this for almost two years.
“We are simply too little to establish our own tactical team, which is why they went into a 20-year agreement with Longview.” We would like to work out a deal with the city of Henderson to accomplish the same goal. We would pool our resources.