The Monroe Police Department has disbanded its Special Weapons And Tactics Team and is considering joining the Butler County Sheriff’s team.

“For financial and manpower reasons, we have disbanded the ‘stand-alone’ SWAT team,” said City Manager Bill Brock. “In order to allow for continued training and having the resource of such a team if needed for our service area, the department has requested to join the Butler County Sheriff’s SWAT Team.”

Monroe would be the fourth government entity to join the county SWAT Team, which started in 2005 with the sheriff’s office and Fairfield Twp. Police Department, said Lt. John Sons, division commander of the Sheriff’s Office Patrol Division and commander of the Butler County Regional SWAT Team.

The Trenton Police Department has since joined the team along with the Liberty Twp. Fire Department, which has assigned a couple tactical medics to the team

There would be no financial commitment for any government to join the team, outside of paying for salaries and equipment, Sons said. There is no minimum or maximum requirement for officers to be assigned to the county team. Monroe anticipates assigning six officers to the county team, said Chief Gregory Homer.

“It’s better for the whole city,” Homer said.

The exact cost savings, Homer said, will be in intangibles and future costs. He estimates the first-year cost savings for the city will be about $2,000.

“It’s not major bucks, but it’s going to work out over the years.”

The sheriff’s office has 14 members on the team, but at one point had as many as 21 members. Because of budget cuts, Sons said the county’s numbers have been reduced.

“With Monroe coming on board, it fills a void,” Sons said. “It brings our numbers up to cover serious situations.”

Fairfield Twp. has six members and Trenton has one.

“Regionalization qualifies you for more grants,” said Sons about the benefit of including multiple governmental entities on the SWAT Team. “That’s what the federal government is looking at more now.”

“With the other agencies being on board with us, that helps us as well,” Sons said. “We don’t have all the personnel.”

The team now has 14 members, but at one point they had 21 members – “but because of the budge cut backs and things like that, our numbers had been cut down. With Monroe coming on board, it fills a void. It brings our numbers up to cover serious situations.”

The SWAT Team is called for incidents involving barricade situations, armed suicidal subjects, an active shooter, some drug search warrants and fugitive warrants.

The SWAT call outs are for “anything that requires specialized training,” Sons said, which include barricade situations, suicidal subjects, any active shooter, fugitive warrants, and drug search warrants involving subjects with violent criminal histories or if they are known to have weapons.

SWAT averages nine to 12 calls a year. This year, the team’s been called five times as of Tuesday and nine times last year.