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Residents in Greensburg, Haviland and Mullinville might have noticed the large Kansas Bureau of Investigation assault van and groups of armored officers entering numerous county buildings last week.
“There’s really not much too it, we’re friends with some of the KBI agents and they were in town doing some training,” said Kiowa County Undersheriff Richard McVey. “They go out to departments and do weekly and monthly training. Normally they don’t show up here in Greensburg because we don’t have a KBI agent that lives in the county.”
McVay and the sheriff’s department brought the KBI to Kiowa County to do non-field training, but technological problems took the officers out of the classroom and put them into area buildings.
“We were going to do some methamphetamine laboratory training, but there were some computer problems so we invited them to practice in a few of our houses,” continued McVey. “We called a few people who we knew had empty houses and we asked them if we could use them for training. We were at a couple of houses in Mullinville, the vacant school in Haviland and we came over here and practiced in a few houses in Greensburg.”
Last Thursday around 1 p.m. officers simulated a raid at 420 E. Wisconsin, a small run down house that has been vacant since the May 2007 tornado.
“I took numerous phone calls about that one. The house here in town that everyone’s talking about, that’s an empty house.”
The training provided KBI diverse settings, exposing officers to older buildings in Haviland and Mullinville and exposing them to modern buildings in Greensburg.
“If they can go to new areas, like they came here and walked through the school, it gives them a chance to work in and see new layouts and new buildings. If they get together at the same place and train in the same house then they will get used to it. It gives them a chance to run through floor plans of houses and buildings they’ve never seen.”
McVey says that the training was not just beneficial to the KBI officers, but was also an asset to the local sheriffs department.
“It does gives us a chance, all of our officers, to not only work with the KBI in a training setting and getting to know them, but the other part is having the KBI agents get to know our guys. We had a class about two years ago that a couple of our guys went through over in Dodge and we talked to them since then. The benefit is that we are taking the time to get with the KBI and spend time with them, to create a relationship with them.”
Residents in Greensburg, Haviland and Mullinville might have noticed the large Kansas Bureau of Investigation assault van and groups of armored officers entering numerous county buildings last week.
“There’s really not much too it, we’re friends with some of the KBI agents and they were in town doing some training,” said Kiowa County Undersheriff Richard McVey. “They go out to departments and do weekly and monthly training. Normally they don’t show up here in Greensburg because we don’t have a KBI agent that lives in the county.”
McVay and the sheriff’s department brought the KBI to Kiowa County to do non-field training, but technological problems took the officers out of the classroom and put them into area buildings.
“We were going to do some methamphetamine laboratory training, but there were some computer problems so we invited them to practice in a few of our houses,” continued McVey. “We called a few people who we knew had empty houses and we asked them if we could use them for training. We were at a couple of houses in Mullinville, the vacant school in Haviland and we came over here and practiced in a few houses in Greensburg.”
Last Thursday around 1 p.m. officers simulated a raid at 420 E. Wisconsin, a small run down house that has been vacant since the May 2007 tornado.
“I took numerous phone calls about that one. The house here in town that everyone’s talking about, that’s an empty house.”
The training provided KBI diverse settings, exposing officers to older buildings in Haviland and Mullinville and exposing them to modern buildings in Greensburg.
“If they can go to new areas, like they came here and walked through the school, it gives them a chance to work in and see new layouts and new buildings. If they get together at the same place and train in the same house then they will get used to it. It gives them a chance to run through floor plans of houses and buildings they’ve never seen.”
McVey says that the training was not just beneficial to the KBI officers, but was also an asset to the local sheriffs department.
“It does gives us a chance, all of our officers, to not only work with the KBI in a training setting and getting to know them, but the other part is having the KBI agents get to know our guys. We had a class about two years ago that a couple of our guys went through over in Dodge and we talked to them since then. The benefit is that we are taking the time to get with the KBI and spend time with them, to create a relationship with them.”
When asked if there would ever be a need for the KBI in Kiowa County, McVey said it would be highly unlikely to see KBI in the county on a regular basis.
“We don’t necessarily need them as a resource, because you have to remember that Dodge City and Ford County, they have a SWAT team. Pratt County has a half organized SWAT team and some of us are also SWAT certified including myself, [Sheriff] Kendal [Lothman] and some of our other officers,” he said. “The reality is that if you have something happen fast it’s going to be taken care of. Even calling Dodge City is going to be a heck of a lot faster than getting the KBI out here because it’s going to take them a couple of hours to get here.”
