Key to the SWAT team's approach is a deep respect for human life, which underpins their commitment to exhausting all tactical alternatives before resorting to deadly force. Consistent and intensive training is viewed as crucial to the team's operational success, emphasizing the importance of teamwork, mental and physical health, and ongoing skill development through a documented training program. The SWAT team also commits to self-evaluation to avoid complacency and mediocrity, recognizing their role within the larger organizational framework of the Sheriff's Office and the importance of departmental support for their success.
Our Mission
The mission of SWAT is to support the Sheriff's Office with a tactical response to critical Incidents such as:
Barricaded subject(s)
Hostage situations
Sniper situations
High-risk apprehension
High-risk warrant service
Dignitary protection
Special assignments
Weapons of Mass Destruction Response
Jail Searches
Our Purpose
The Sheriff's Office SWAT Team shall provide the citizens of Jefferson County with a highly trained, versatile unit, available on a 24-hour-a-day basis, capable of safely and successfully resolving a variety of situations. SWAT members shall maintain the highest degree of professionalism by the following means:
A deep abiding reverence for human life, resulting in a firm resolve that all possible tactical alternatives be exhausted before employing deadly force.
A conviction that consistent and intensive training is tantamount to continued success in all operational aspects of the team.
A commitment to the belief that members of this entity must function as a team.
The overall success of each mission is a direct result of individual team members acting in concert with one another.
An enduring effort by each team member to maintain the high standards of mental and physical health.
That vital tactical skills be maintained through an ongoing documented training program. A continuing process of honest introspection into workings of the team for the purpose of guarding against complacency and mediocrity.
Above all, recognition that we are part of a larger organization, the department. Our level of success is dependent, in large measure, on the support of the Sheriff, the department, and all entities within.
