One Team, One Fight

For many years, members of Swainsboro Police Department and the Emanuel County Sheriff’s Office have worked tirelessly to keep members of the community as safe as possible. In this effort, these organizations have started many different programs.

Recently, officers from both departments have come together to create a new team to protect the schools of Emanuel County, “Emanuel County Regional Special Response Team”, and its main purpose is to ensure protection of the students of our county.

Each Thursday, the 14 members of the ECRSRT meet at a different Emanuel County school to become more familiar with the structures and to practice response plans for worst-case scenarios. These meetings last four hours and usually begin at 12 p.m.

“One of our primary focuses is school safety and responding to them if something bad were to happen,” stated Lieutenant Commander Adam Kersey of the Swainsboro Police Department. “When the idea was brought to administration, we received a great response and were welcomed with open arms.”

To begin practice, members of this unit walk the halls of the schools and conduct what they call a “safety brief”. They examine various characteristics such as how doors are positioned, how the halls are set up, and even examine the locks on the doors. This is done to gain a sense of familiarity on how to safely secure the schools if they are ever in danger.

After the safety brief occurs, the ECRSRT does a full run-through of the safety precautions they plan to practice based off different scenarios. When running these full-on drills, the team takes time to examine each room and hallway thoroughly to ensure safety for all that are inside of the school during the incident.

The ECRSRT is led by Adam Kersey of the Swainsboro Police Department and Jonathan Jones of the Emanuel County Sheriff’s Office.

“It’s one team, one fight,” stated Kersey. In this union of these departments, they plan to go beyond measures to keep our community safe.