Cooperation is a two-way street for Lighthorse, area law enforcement - Theadanews
Chickasaw Nation Police Commissioner Randy Wesley
The Chickasaw Nation has a long history of supporting communities in the 13-county tribal territory, none more vital than in the field of law enforcement.
Chickasaw Police Commissioner Randy Wesley says the Nation’s support of area sheriff and police departments is often in the form of vehicles, equipment, weapons and, on occasion, money.
Wesley and Lighthorse Police Chief Mike Manning are also quick to point out that their men and women in uniform benefit mightily from the support of sheriff and police departments in the 13-county tribal area.
“It’s a two-way street,” Wesley said. “We consider their agencies vital to our collective mission of protecting the residents we both strive to serve and protect.”
A recent example of assistance Lighthorse received involved stolen weapons from an unmarked Lighthorse patrol unit.
“One of our officers had some weapons stolen from his vehicle,” Manning said. “We found out where the individual was, got a search warrant and an arrest warrant. Ada Police Chief Carl Allen’s officers were able to secure the perimeter and block off streets because it happened at a residence in Ada.”
Another recent incident at a Chickasaw tribal facility came to a successful conclusion as a result of Marshall County Sheriff Department’s deputies assisting Lighthorse by corralling three robbery suspects.
For its part, Lighthorse contributions to others sometimes include patrol vehicles it replaces after a certain number of miles is accrued, but which still have many good miles left in them due to the department’s strict maintenance schedule.
“They’re majority highway miles, so they are still in pretty decent shape,” Wesley said. “
Siren boxes and extra lights from refitted Lighthorse units have been provided to various local sheriff departments.
Lighthorse Police Department replaces its weapons every five years and these too find important use after they are replaced.
“Even though they are well-maintained, we want to be sure all weapons are in the best shape possible,” Wesley said. “We recently donated our excess to a couple area police departments that were in need.”
Not every assistance Lighthorse provides to local law enforcement consists of material items. Often, it is in the form of trained assistance available via its dive or SWAT teams, or its search dog.
The dive team helped salvage an unoccupied vehicle whose brakes had failed in Madill, sending it into Madill City Lake.
A Lighthorse search dog was recently employed to help search for a missing person Ada police were investigating. Lighthorse also secured Chickasaw Nation Management’s drone unit to inspect a wooded area in an attempt to locate the missing person.
The Lighthorse search dog was requested again by Ada police to search a building for a suspected burglar. Ada Police Chief Carl Allen was appreciative that the canine achieved in short order what would have otherwise taken hours to accomplish.
“That dog was able to get in there and clear everything out to be sure everybody was safe,” Allen said.
Garvin County Sheriff Department contacted the Lighthorse SWAT team for assistance due to an inebriated man shooting inside a house that also contained an elderly woman in a wheelchair. While SWAT team members kept him talking on the house’s second story balcony, other SWAT team members entered the back door to get her out. Fortunately, the situation was resolved with no injuries.
A similar Lighthorse SWAT team episode occurred in Marshall County. Marshall County Sheriff Donald Yow says, “Being a small agency, we don’t have the resources for a tactical (SWAT) team. We reached out to Lighthorse and within 45 minutes we had a response with them being on the ground ready to go.”
The situation was resolved without bloodshed and Sheriff Yow credits Lighthorse Police presence as a major contributing factor to its nonviolent resolution.
“We are only too glad to be of service in any way we can in maintaining the safety of all residents in the 13-county Chickasaw tribal area,” Wesley said. “We gladly work with other area law enforcement entities to that end. It’s the reason we’re here.”
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source: https://www.theadanews.com/news/local_news/cooperation-is-a-two-way-street-for-lighthorse-area-law-enforcement/article_b357549c-669f-5a29-9265-b4c09159d60c.html
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