West Plains, MO. – Two individuals from the Howell County Sheriff’s Office have begun their training in Counter Terrorism Officer classes as a part of a program from the Missouri Office of Homeland Security.
Recognition for this training goes to Corporal Matthew Roberts and Sergeant Buddy Thompson. Brent Campbell, the Sheriff, and Sergeant Thompson stepped into the studio to tell us about this training, why they chose to do it, and how it will benefit the community.
The Sheriff stated: “As I seek funding opportunities through the grant process through state and federal levels, there were programs where I had to have a dedicated CTO officer.” He went on to say that the communication and knowledge from the course was also a selling point for the classes, but that the training’s repeated requirement for many programs at the state and federal level provided the impetus for seeing officers complete this training since his first year in office.
Sergeant Buddy Thompson also spoke about the program, letting us know the wealth of information from these classes has really expanded their knowledge of what kind of assistance the Sheriff’s Office can receive from organizations that already have programs in place. He added: “We can make better use of the taxpayer’s dollars by making better use of programs that are already paid for. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel for that.”
Further Counter-Terrorism training will continue in Fall for both the Sergeant and Corporal, which will include more law enforcement specific classes, including investigation tactics and crime deterrents.
