The Chesmont Emergency Response Team was officially dissolved last week to make way for a new regional police tactical team.
The previous team, which is more commonly referred to as CMERT, consisted of a group of specially-trained officers who could respond in emergency situations outside their assigned municipalities. The team included officers from Pottstown, North Coventry, Lower Pottsgrove, Upper Pottsgrove, West Pottsgrove, New Hanover, Limerick, Douglass, Collegeville, Upper Providence and Colebrookdale police departments.
The team of specialists has been renamed Montgomery County SWAT – Western Region and the change was made official at a Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners meeting on Jan. 3.
There is still some legwork to do involved with the name change, according to Lower Pottsgrove Police Chief Michael Foltz, who also heads the Montgomery County SWAT.
“The change was made effective by our board of chiefs and then brought to the individual agency. We still have to rescind ordinances and then there will be a cooperative agreement to be signed with the name change,” Foltz said. “All our trucks and things still say CMERT because that’s just a matter of funds.”
Foltz said Wednesday that the change did not affect how, when or where the group operates and that the change was mostly made to the name. The name will now more accurately reflect the team’s job, which includes responding to bomb threats, hostage situations, barricaded individuals, active shooter situations and other events that a regular police force may not be equipped to handle.
“The change is simply to try and standardize some of the county SWAT operations. We have multiple SWAT teams throughout Montgomery County and we’re trying to standardize practices and procedures and therefore we’re calling all the teams Montgomery County SWAT,” said Foltz.
The team consists of just under 30 officers that include tactical operators and negotiators. They respond to areas including Upper Providence, Royersford, Limerick Township, Lower Frederick, New Hanover, Douglass (Mont.), Colebrookdale, North Coventry, West Pottsgrove, Lower Pottsgrove and Upper Pottsgrove and Pottstown.
“Nothing changes in our command structure, nothing changes in our financial situation as far as control of our finances,” said Foltz. “The big change is that it makes it easier for us to secure funding through homeland security grants and other federal or state grants. Funding comes to the county and gets divided up to the teams. Before we had to specify which teams so now it just comes into one and we can divide it up. It just works much smoother.”
So far under its new name, the Montgomery County SWAT has responded to two incidents, one in West Pottsgrove and another in Limerick.
