Knox Mayor Rick Chambers told the Knox City Council members last week about some concerns he has with a proposed SWAT mutual aid agreement between Knox City Police Department officer Chad Dulin and Pulaski County.
Chambers noted that SWAT is a worthwhile program and would be great training for the rest of the city officers. It would also benefit to the community when there is a need. However, Mayor Chambers does have concerns with personnel availability and shift coverage if Dulin is called to active assignment. He’s working on those issues before an agreement is brought before the council for final approval.
“One of my concerns was officer Dulin talking about swapping hours and calling officers in and out to cover shifts. That’s not going to work because of federal regulations. They have to be paid and that could be a lot of overtime. There’s just so much training that’s required.
“Getting called out of town when this officer is working – a lot of times they work by themselves so we need to come up with a way of getting those shifts covered when he gets called out.
“Take home cars – I don’t even know that we have that possibility right now to give him a car to take home.
“As for the equipment, Sheriff Gayer is willing to donate all of that equipment that’s needed at this time, but at some point in time you’re going to have to step up and pay your own way,” stated Chambers.
He said the agreement will be analyzed further to see if things can be finalized.
