Sherriff Slater and the Tale of the Two SWAT Teams

I had wonderful chat in the office of Sherriff Brad Slater (just Brad, as he likes to be called). We discuss at length the concerns of the two SWAT teams in the Weber County/Ogden area. He passed on some enlightening information about a situation that appears to go way back. I have to thank Mr. Slater for taking the time to talk and help us understand why there are two SWAT Teams and what that means to each of us.

To begin, let's give a little back ground. Sometime ago, the Weber County Sherriff's office was in need of SWAT team to help with internal issues, like the Jail, County Court House, etc. Mr. Slater explained they formed the SWAT team to accomplish those internal duties and avoid charging cities for county related issues; in addition Ogden City Metro SWAT didn't want to contract to do them. As time has gone on and two SWAT teams have worked near each other. Ideas began to circulate they could possible share resources, supplies, equipment, etc. What a great cost cutting measure! However not everyone has seen it that way. Instead certain people are beginning to feel territorial about their SWAT. A feeling of one SWAT is trying take over the other has begun to circulate. These feelings have filtered down into individual police departments and local government. AS a result, we have two City Councils in the Weber County area that have passed resolutions to not contract with Weber County SWAT. (See South Ogden here and Riverdale here) The interesting thing to point is Weber County SWAT never wanted to contract with them in the first place. At most they had hoped to be a back up to Ogden SWAT when they needed them. But Ogden SWAT's back up is Layton; so this arrangement has never materialized. Why did these cities preemptively strike against Weber County SWAT? PRIDE!

South Ogden City appears to be caught up in an internal political war over who has the better team. This also appears to have stirred up some old feelings about previous issues, including talk of South Ogden City Police merging with Weber County Sherriff's Office. When Washington Terrace Police merged, rumors of a merger floated around South Ogden. The Mayor and Chief Shupe have been against this and the issue died. But the feeling of another agency overstepping its bounds was felt, even though nothing ever took place, and these feelings appear to have been resurrected in the SWAT issue.

Conclusion: I fully understand the reasoning behind two SWAT teams and why Riverdale City and South Ogden City are making statements they will not contract with Weber County SWAT.

Concern: How much is the internal turf war costing tax payers? If both SWATs exist in our area and are using similar or the same equipment; why can't they share and work together? Why are we contracting with Layton and sending money to another city or county? Can't we all just get along?

Thanks again to Brad Slater for taking the time to talk.

Comments welcome on this crazy topic.