MIDLOTHIAN – The Midlothian Police Department’s recent implementation of a Warrant Service Team has culminated its development since early 2022.
The team’s core consists of seven SRT Operators who are a part of Regional SRT (SWAT). The Police Department also posted externally late last year for remaining positions, with 12 officers responding who were not part of regional SWAT at that time.
In the process, the officers were required to pass a written exam regarding policy, procedure, and case law and pass an interview process. Next, each member competed and passed a combat fitness test and a rigorous physical agility test. The next steps included enhanced training in less lethal weapon systems, room entry, close-quarter combat, perimeter tactics, and firearms training.
Midlothian Police Department Warrant Service Team Commander Andy Vaughan said, “To date, the Warrant Service Team has assisted in multiple search and arrest warrant operations within the city resulting in the apprehension of multiple fugitives, including two aggravated robbery suspects.”
He also added that during various search warrant operations, the Warrant Service Team had assisted Investigators in the recovery of stolen property, the seizure of illegally possessed firearms, body armor, and narcotics such as Fentanyl and Methamphetamine.
“Although this is a newly formed unit, the Warrant Service Team has already made an impact and will continue to meet the challenging situations our city faces as we grow,” Vaughan said. “We believe the Warrant Service Team will be instrumental in keeping our community a safe place to live and work. To my knowledge, we are the only agency in Ellis County with a specially designated Warrant Service Team.”
The Warrant Service Team, initially developed last year, was an idea identified by the Midlothian Police Department years earlier. The vision was to create a team with enhanced training and equipment that would be proactive in the apprehension of fugitives within the city while also adding a resource to assist the city’s patrol shifts as challenging situations in the city became more frequent with the city’s ongoing growth. While the city is not necessarily increasing the number of warrants issued, the Team enhances the ability to respond to and serve those warrants that in the past may not have been served as quickly.
Midlothian Assistant Police Chief Scott Brown said the Warrant Team members also serve daily functions in other areas of the department such as patrol, traffic, investigations, training, etc., allowing for their expertise to be utilized not only for pre-planned events such as warrant service, but for an immediate response to any situation that may become a tactical event.
“As a department, we are continually exploring practices that will make our community safer,” Brown concluded. “The Warrant Team will do just that. Sometimes we have situations where we may need to arrest an individual from a location or perform a unique property search that may not necessitate a SWAT or Tactical response but might require a bit more training and expertise than the traditional patrol officers possess.”
