Search and rescue unit coming to City of Progress

ENTERPRISE, Ala. (WDHN) — The Enterprise Police Department has just received a grant that will help finding missing people a little bit easier.

“We’ll be better prepared with the equipment that we have. The ability to operate at night, is going to be a huge advantage,” says Enterprise Police Captain Billy Haglund.

The department was awarded a $45,000 grant from the Alabama Department of Homeland Security.

Haglund says that this grant will be used to jumpstart a brand-new search and rescue unit.

“The grant is essentially for equipment and training,” he says. “So, we requested the state to provide night vision and thermal devices to help us find, maybe, missing people at night; and as well as training ourselves.

This search and rescue unit will be made of full-time and reserve officers and many others.

“Community members that belong to Coffee County CERT, are also invited to join our unit; and we’ll work together in whatever capacity we need to to search for people,” says Haglund.

Last year, Enterprise had 77 people show up on the missing person’s list. Haglund says that he hopes the new technology and training will allow the unit to find more people–even when dealing with less-than-ideal situations.

“The ultimate goal is you want to find everyone safe, and really, we want to find everybody…We wouldn’t have to stop and wait until if a search went into the night, to wait for the sun to come up again,” he adds.

Haglund says that the department is still in the beginning stages. Now that the money is available, the department will soon begin buying equipment and training tools.

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