Greensburg is the latest municipality to join a special response team largely made up of police officers from the Alle-Kiski Valley, ultimately expanding the program from northern parts of the county to a more centralized region.

City officials unanimously signed off on an ordinance authorizing Greensburg police officers to participate in the Westmoreland SWAT team, which comprises officers from New Kensington, Lower Burrell, Upper Burrell, Allegheny Township, Vandergrift, Washington Township and Murrysville.

In all, five Greensburg police officers will be eligible to participate in the initiative.

“We’re happy to be on board,” said Shawn Denning, Greensburg’s interim police chief. “Anything major can happen anywhere, but if there’s any protests and things like that, a lot of times they are at the courthouse, and the ability to have the Westmoreland SWAT team … will be a great benefit to the citizens and to the police department.”

With the addition of Greensburg, the team will have 23 officers who can be deployed to respond to high-risk search warrants, active shooter events, barricaded individuals or similar incidents within participating municipalities. In addition, the team utilizes advanced tactical equipment, including body armor and armored vehicles.

Westmoreland SWAT was formed in 2016, when New Kensington, Lower Burrell and Upper Burrell banded together to form the first regional Westmoreland team, said Zachary Beam, detective sergeant for Lower Burrell. The initiative was based on a service team started in New Kensington in 1999 with seven officers.

By 2018, the team expanded to include Allegheny Township, Vandergrift, Washington Township and Murrysville.

However, formalization of the SWAT team was delayed in 2019 after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled municipalities must enact ordinances under the state’s Intergovernmental Cooperation Act to allow police to participate in arrests outside their home municipalities except in cases of emergency.

Because of the delay, Westmoreland SWAT did not respond to its first incident until 2020.

Beam did not know how many incidents the team responds to per year.

“It’s a good thing,” Beam said of Westmoreland SWAT. “We’ve seen it help our officers be better trained and the community seems to be pretty supportive. Ultimately, we’re there to save lives and do the best we can for the community.”

For Murrysville police chief Thomas Seefeld, who served as police chief in New Kensington when the team was formed in 1999, the goal is to continue growing the program.

“That team may grow to be quite large in the county, and that’s kind of what the long range plan would be,” Seefeld said.

The multimunicipality concept is the first of its kind in the county, aside from an individual SWAT team operated by state police.

Seefeld noted each municipality is responsible for providing equipment needed to outfit officers. The program previously has been supported by the Westmoreland District Attorney’s office. Most recently, the DA’s office in January awarded Lower Burrell police $105,000 to purchase equipment for the team.

Cassandra Kovatch, spokeswoman for the Westmoreland County Department of Public Safety, touted the program and its benefits.

“On the county level, we always support our local law enforcement, especially in situations like this where they’re working together to strengthen the services they’re offering to the communities by sharing resources and costs, as well as providing a quicker response time to those communities,” Kovatch said.

In Greensburg, the five officers who will be in the program have not yet been selected, Denning said.

“The officers are very excited to join the team,” Denning said. “They actually wanted to start their own internal SWAT team but, financially, the equipment and the vehicles, it just wasn’t feasible, so this was a great way for us to enter that.”

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