SFS keeps Eglin safe in variety of ways

  • Published
  • By 2nd Lt. Andrew Caulk
  • Team Eglin Public Affairs
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  Patrolling 724 square miles of Eglin reservation can seem like quite a task. Nevertheless, the 96th Security Forces Squadron, with their more than 500 members and 60 vehicles, does just that.

With Eglin's unique missions and landscape, security forces responsibilities are equally unique and numerous.

Cell phone use while driving and seatbelt law infractions are high emphasis items for the squadron right now. A Sept. 25 random vehicle stop by SFS members is an example of new ways they are increasing enforcement measures. Out of 58 tickets issued during these stops, 46 tickets violated the wing commander's zero tolerance seatbelt rule.

"For failure to wear a seatbelt, base regulations proscribe a ticket along with a seven day driving suspension for a first offense, 30 day for a second offense, and six months for a third offense. Florida law has also changed, which gives officers the right to conduct a traffic stop with a seatbelt violation being the primary reason for the stop," said Senior Airman Chris Smith. 

Due to Eglin's size, the SFS is responsible for miles of range, base roads and surrounding waterways. Their marine unit's premier craft has night vision and gun mounts ready. Sometimes they assist with Coast Guard operations.

"With our large base and high speed roadways, accidents are a huge part of what we encounter," said Senior Master Sgt. Manuel Camacho, SFS operations superintendent.

The base exchange and commissary parking lots are a source of many accident responses, according to Tech Sgt. Shane Kirkpatrick, a 14-year Air Force cop.  He also said Eglin's traffic averages 120,000 vehicles passing through the reservation each week.

"If only one percent of that traffic commits an infraction, you can see that adds up," he said.

During a ride along Sept. 25, Sergeant Kirkpatrick pulled over a vehicle for speeding through housing.

"We have three options when we pull someone over. We can give a verbal warning, a written warning or a ticket. It's up to the officer which one to give unless it's a zero tolerance infraction," said the sergeant.

On the flight line, SFS members guard the aircraft from unauthorized access and vandalism. Around the base, security forces dispatch teams to respond to alarms.

"With so many activities here requiring buildings with alarms, we frequently respond to tripped and false alarms," said Sergeant Camacho.

Security forces also respond to thefts on the base.

"Most of the time, we are called to apprehend people for stealing government property like tools and other items," said Sergeant Camacho a 23-year SF member.

The variety of gate guards evident in the morning demonstrates the diversity of the security forces personnel system. SFS hires civilian guards to help maintain continuity at the base. They help the squadron stay operational since the active duty members constantly deploy. Currently, 24 percent of their active duty members are deployed.

"Our civilian counterparts help to backfill deployments and we have over 90 civilian positions," said Sergeant Camacho.

The SFS military working dog section is also heavily deployed.

"We have at least one dog and handler gone all of the time and we currently have two teams deployed," said Tech. Sgt. Dennis Dolce, military working dog section noncommissioned officer in charge.

At Eglin, the dog teams support missions around the nation such as the United Nations General Assembly. The bomb dogs sniff out explosives to protect high value targets and the drug dogs help to locate drug caches imported to the U.S.

For all of the patrols and deployments, squadron members have about 120 hours of various training per year to maintain mission effectiveness and deployment readiness. Therefore, the SFS implemented a 30-day annual training period where the members leave their duty shift to focus on training.

The squadron implemented a modified version of the Army hand-to-hand combat training and installed a fighting pit to train their troops after members returning from deployments said it would be more combat effective.

"We had our people coming back and asking for this training, so we gave it to them," said Sergeant Camacho.

To train SFS when to use different levels of force on a subject, the squadron has a specialized program.

"We have simulators and scenarios where we get their heart rate up and have them make split second decisions to prepare them for the real world," said Master Sgt. David Kilinski. "We want our troops to have a range of options when dealing with a situation, both lethal and non-lethal. We train them on the use of force spectrum to train them on how to respond to escalating threats."

The security forces career field constantly brings in new people to help alleviate the deployment pressure.

"Around 70 percent of our forces are new Airmen so training is very important to us," said Sergeant Camacho.

To educate people about what the security forces mission, SFS are starting a citizen's police academy where community members will be able to shadow SFS troops and see the military working dogs in action. The one-month course begins Nov. 3. To sign up or for more information about this program, call the 96th SFS police services section at 882-2556.