SWAT response disappoints: explain mistake

As everyone knows at this point, members of the county’s SWAT team completely failed when they conducted a raid at a wrong address in Green River nearly three weeks ago.

Unfortunately, the Green River Police Department’s response after the incident is also a failure, especially considering the severity of the issue. Sure, people have poked fun at the incident, with a few suggesting the department require its officers a degree in forestry to help them differentiate between the tree streets, the event itself is terrifying.

The peacefulness of a home setting broken when mistaken officers shatter a window and use a flash-bang device on unsuspecting residents. Sure, the damages were paid for, but Green River’s residents deserve more than an explanation that a mistake was made and they’re handling it internally.

We deserve to know what that mistake was; and exactly how the department will move forward and ensure that mistake won’t happen again.

This incident doesn’t help the GRPD’s public image. Between this, Officer Jake Anglesey’s grand jury indictment, and the costs associated with the police department building and indoor shooting range, a lot of residents have developed mixed views on the department.

Anglesey’s indictment isn’t directly involved with his work at the GRPD, but the fact he was an officer and it took nearly seven years before an indictment was issued has caused some to look at the department differently, as unfair as that connection truly is.

The department’s response to the SWAT team’s error represented an opportunity to have an open dialog with residents. Yes, the mistake is regrettable, but telling local media that they won’t discuss the details of the incident or how they plan to address it, doesn’t instill a lot of trust in what the department is doing.

All it does is tell the residents of Green River a mistake was made and the department is not going to talk about it.

I don’t think the GRPD is doing a bad job, but the city’s residents deserve a much better response when a terrible mistake is made.