Archived News

Waynesville SWAT competes in national tourney

The Waynesville Special Response Team recently went up against dozens special ops units and SWAT teams from across the county in the national SWAT Round-Up Competition, nabbing the accolade of “Best Small Agency.”

A small agency is defined as 100 or fewer officers — Waynesville is the smallest small agency ever to compete in the SWAT Round-Up.

“We have always felt we had the best of the best serving in Waynesville, now we have national recognition of that fact,” said Mayor Gavin Brown.

The Waynesville team was put through the paces of various  rescue scenarios that required rappelling, scrambling walls, traversing high wires, hitting sniper targets, scaling towers and more — all while under enemy fire and fending of surprise ambushes. One rescue scenario included a simulated chemical attack.

Waynesville Police Sgt. Brandon Gilmore said the officers who make up the team train almost every day, year-round. Their know-how in tactical techniques is a benefit to the community if something ever happened needing high-level special response, Gilmore said.

“Without the support from this agency and the opportunity to get top notch training, none of this would have been possible,” said Gilmore.

This is the seventh year that the Waynesville special response unit has participated in the SWAT Round-Up held in Orlando.

Smokey Mountain News Logo
SUPPORT THE SMOKY MOUNTAIN NEWS AND
INDEPENDENT, AWARD-WINNING JOURNALISM
Go to top
Payment Information

/

At our inception 20 years ago, we chose to be different. Unlike other news organizations, we made the decision to provide in-depth, regional reporting free to anyone who wanted access to it. We don’t plan to change that model. Support from our readers will help us maintain and strengthen the editorial independence that is crucial to our mission to help make Western North Carolina a better place to call home. If you are able, please support The Smoky Mountain News.

The Smoky Mountain News is a wholly private corporation. Reader contributions support the journalistic mission of SMN to remain independent. Your support of SMN does not constitute a charitable donation. If you have a question about contributing to SMN, please contact us.