Council members approved an agreement necessary for the Norcross Police Department to join a multi-agency special response team with law enforcement in Duluth, Lilburn, and Suwanee.
Police Chief Bill Grogan said the agreement allows Norcross to participate in high-risk public safety and policing activities with neighboring police departments.
“We’re kind of the first domino with the other three cities,” Grogan said, explaining the agreement’s late addition to the April 6 meeting agenda. “If we get this approved, then Duluth can do it next Monday [April 13].”
Norcross joins special response team
Grogan said the other three cities currently operate a special response team, and the memorandum of understanding before the council allows Norcross to train for and participate in joint operations.
Because of the size of the municipal police departments in south Gwinnett County, Grogan said it did not make sense for the agencies to form a SWAT team, which the Gwinnett County Police Department already has.
“You have your own individual response teams, like what we have,” Grogan said. “We can do arrest warrants and hotel rooms and that type of thing, but we couldn’t do a house, for example.”
The Norcross City Council approved the agreement unanimously. Once all four cities sign onto the special response team, police departments in Duluth, Lilburn, Norcross, and Suwanee can operate as a coordinated team.
A special response team, or SRT, provides a multi-agency tactical response to high-risk situations that exceed standard patrol capabilities. Those situations include high-risk warrant service, barricaded suspects and gunman incidents, and armed suicidal people, and some urgent hostage situations.
A planned or deliberate hostage rescue would fall under the purview of Gwinnett County SWAT. However, SRT training allows qualified personnel to take “reasonable and necessary action consistent with their training and the immediate preservation of life,” according to city documents.
While some Gwinnett County cities have their own police departments, Norcross’ neighbors in Peachtree Corners and Berkeley Lake are served by the Gwinnett County Police Department
Council Member Bruce Gaynor clarified with Grogan that while Norcross police officers can legally execute a search warrant at a house in the city, the department does not have the personnel readily available to do so.
“If we combine [our numbers] with the other three cities, we have enough to do a house,” Grogan said. “It’s not a legal issue, it’s a staffing issue.”
