The watsonville police department has received a federal grant to establish a SWAT team. The 100-thousand dollar grant is being awarded by the Department of homeland security’s urban area security initiative. The SWAT team will be initially made up of 10 watsonville police officers, who will receive training for special weapons and tactics, to deal with violent situations. The announcement came the same day that officers and santa cruz county sheriff’s deputies stormed the Watsonville courthouse, following a report of a gunman there. (that situation was resolved without incident.) The SWAT team could be operational as soon as july.
