Boyd Kicks in Money to Help Pay for SWAT Weapons

Hamilton County Commissioner Tim Boyd, left, presents a $7,500 check to Mayor Brian Williams, as Police Chief Stan Allen looks on holding a new Daniel Defense MK18 rifle.

East Ridge got an assist from a Hamilton County Commissioner to help pay for new automatic weapons for the East Ridge Police Department’s SWAT team.

On Thursday evening, District 8 Commissioner Tim Boyd presented a check for $7,500 to Mayor Brian Williams to offset a portion of the $45,000 the city used recently to buy 15 automatic weapons.

Police Chief Stan Allen said the Daniel Defense MK 18 rifles are replacing worn out nearly decade old weapons SWAT was using previously. Each 5.56 caliber rifle is outfitted with a suppressor to dampen the noise the weapon makes when discharged. The weapon is lightweight (5.7 lbs) and has a 10-inch barrel.

The weapons were ordered back in 2018 when SWAT members brought to the attention of the City Council that it was sorely in need of new equipment. The council used $100,000 from its rainy day fund to purchase the weapons, ammunition, and outdated ballistic vests for SWAT.

Mayor Williams said Commissioner Boyd’s check will go into the city’s general fund as a reimbursement for the cost.

About Dick Cook

Dick Cook has lived in East Ridge since the Kennedy Administration when his parents bought a house on Marietta Street. Dick graduated from ERHS in 1976 before going on to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he studied Political Science. Dick worked for the Chattanooga Free-Press and the Chattanooga Times Free Press for 22 years. Free-Press Sports Editor Roy Exum plucked him out of production in 1989 and gave him a job as a sports reporter. Dick covered everything from prep sports to the whitewater events on the Ocoee River for the 1996 Olympics. When Chattanooga's two paper's merged, he became the Crime Reporter covering both the Chattanooga Police and Fire Departments. He was among reporters who were honored by the Associated Press for the TFP's coverage of the 2002 fog-shrouded crash on I-75 in Catoosa County, Dick and his wife, Cathy, live on Marlboro Avenue where they are seen frequently chasing around their three grandsons.