MOUNT VERNON — Local law enforcement has a new forcible entry tool that improves safety and security in active threat situations.

Thanks to Knox County Foundation and Elks Lodge #140 grants, the JTC Claw will soon be in patrol cruisers throughout the county.

The 2022 elementary school shooting incident in Uvalde, Texas, highlighted the need for forcible entry tools. 

“With some of these school events, it’s taken about 20 minutes to get forcible entry tools, time when officers were unable to respond,” James DeChant, director of Knox Co EMA/ Office of Homeland Security, said. “If we put them in the cars, whatever officer gets there first has the ability to get in.”

Each JTC Claw active shooter patrol kit costs around $400.

“With agency budgets already spread thin, we quickly realized that we could not expect each department to find the finances to outfit their department with these tools,” DeChant said.

“Equipment comes at a price, and we realized we could not let cost be a roadblock to putting these useful tools in the hands of our first responders.”

He contacted the Elks Lodge #140, which funded a previous project.

Elks Lodge #140 responded with a $2,500 grant. 

DeChant next contacted the Knox Community Foundation. 

The KCF awarded over $15,000 to complete the project.

“With the financial assistance locally available from these two groups, we were able to put the tools into the hands of our first responders by outfitting nearly every marked cruiser in Knox County with a forcible entry tool and accomplish the mission of improving the response to the ever-changing needs of our community,” DeChant said.

The need for forcible entry tools

The Knox County RTF (Rescue Task Force) works to train county first responders in updated tactics and standardized concepts to deal with active threat situations.

The instructors research and analyze active threat responses from incidents around the country.

After reading through after-action reports from the Uvalde incident, the instructors noticed local responders lacked immediate access to locked doors because they had no immediate access to forcible entry tools and equipment.

“Having the knowledge that our law enforcement officers had only the very basic pry bars or crowbars available to them, we started to research other specialized forcible entry tools,” DeChant explained.

DeChant said it was essential to outfit all cruisers to eliminate response delays if the first cruiser on site did not have the equipment.

“We also wanted to standardize the tools so every officer in the county, no matter their department affiliation, could grab a tool from any cruiser and be familiar with how to efficiently use it and what its capabilities were,” he said.

The RTF chose the JTC Claw made by Jersey Tactical because anyone of any size or strength can use it. It is also very user-friendly. 

The Mount Vernon Police Department already has the equipment. The MVPD hosted a demo presented by Jersey Tactical, the inventor of The Claw. Officers from several departments used the claw in a training simulator to get first-hand experience on how it worked. 

The task force bought the equipment in December 2023. DeChant expects to equip all of the cruisers by the end of February.

While most people associate the forcible entry tools with school shootings, the equipment is used in other situations, too.

DeChant cited an overdose incident where the MVPD used it to breach a locked door in a fast-food establishment.

by Cheryl Splain January 25, 2024