Columbia-Montour SWAT Team

Welcome to the Columbia-Montour SWAT Team!!  Formed in 1991, the Columbia-Montour SWAT Team is a group of specially trained law enforcement and medical personnel from Columbia, Montour, Luzerne and Northumberland Counties whose mission is to respond to any type of critical incident, including disaster response, terrorist threats, mass casualty or other large scale emergencies.  The primary goal of the Columbia-Montour SWAT Team is to protect the safety and lives of the public and other first responders.  

The Columbia-Montour SWAT Team also works with the community to provide a safe, secure and protected environment through consultative and logistical assistance, as well as providing training, planning and other specialized law enforcement services for civic, scholastic, political or other community-oriented entities and events.

The men and women that make up the Columbia-Montour SWAT Team come from various municipal and County law enforcement agencies as well as Emergency Medical agencies in our region.  

All of our team members work full time jobs with their home departments and volunteer to become a member of the Columbia-Montour SWAT Team.  Once a part of our team, these members receive extensive training and become familiar with the special tools needed to carry out our missions. 

Our team members donate countless hours to the team and sacrifice time with their family to make sure our team is fully staffed, trained and ready to respond. (Think of us as the volunteer fire department of the law enforcement world.)

Some of our more recognizable tools are our SWAT Trucks.  First and foremost is our big black armored SWAT Truck.  It usually turns heads as it rolls down the highway and has more than once found itself getting it's picture taken by passerby's.  Our armored SWAT truck is a 2012 Lenco BearCat, also known as an ARV or Armored Rescue Vehicle.  Our ARV is capable of safely transporting our team members into danger and moving victims and other innocent persons out of danger.  We've also used our ARV during water rescues in northern Columbia County and to act as a medical transport during other disasters.  

If needed the ARV can be outfitted to be an armored ambulance in very little time.  We also have a 2006 Ford F350 equipment truck and a 2006 Workhorse Van we use as a mobile command and control truck.

The members of our team have varied and hard earned specialties that you would expect when you hear "SWAT Team".  We have entry team members as well as multiple team leaders, vehicle drivers, tear gas and less lethal deployment specialists, manual and energetic breachers and snipers.  We also have a dedicated crisis negotiations team who are deployable with or without tactical team to assist those dealing with a possible mental health crisis.

In addition to their required training for the team members everyday jobs, our team members attend mandatory monthly training culminating in a week long training/exercise for the entire team.  That's roughly 180 hours of training a year, on top of their mandatory training within each agency.  Our team members spend a lot of time training!  Our members also seek additional training throughout the year depending on what each team member's specialty is.  Many of these trainings occur outside of Pennsylvania and require our members to travel usually for a week at a time. 

Our team responds to approximately 12-15 calls for assistance a year.  Many of these calls lasting over 8 hours.  Each and every time our team is deployed to assist another agency, our team must assess the situation and orient our response to ensure the situation is resolved in a positive manner for all of those involved.  This is not only taxing physically on our team, but can also be mentally exhausting for all everyone involved.  Our team is also very committed to the well being of the community.  Our team members volunteer hundreds of hours each year to attend multiple community events including National Night Out, lots of touch-a-truck and trunk or treats events, parades and other such events in an effort to bond with the community and spread goodwill.

For the first time in our team's 34 year existence, our team has been given the opportunity to have a permanent home.  Through the generosity of one of our membering municipalities, a defunct fire station has been offered for us to purchase.  

Unfortunately and surprising to most, we receive very little funding through local, State and Federal sources.  Federal grant programs only provide enough funding to purchase bullet proof vests and helmets when they need replaced and little other equipment.

Our immediate goal is to raise enough funding to continue to update the command vehicle and continue technological updates throughout the team. 

WE APPRECIATE YOUR SUPPORT!!!