Hall County commissioners have approved a $185,000 grant to the Hall County SWAT team.

The funds from the Georgia Emergency Management Agency will go toward some much-needed equipment upgrades.

Hall County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Sgt. Stephen Wilbanks is a SWAT member himself.

“Right now, we have ballistic vests that are hand-me-downs. Some are coming up on expiration dates,” Wilbanks said. “We’re replacing all the team communications gear. Some have been in use up to 10 to 11 years and are no longer functioning.”

New night-vision goggles are a large chunk of the upgrades, at $4,200 a pair, totaling $50,400.

“We’ve been very limited in night search capacity for a number of years. For instance, we could be out on scene for hours in a woodland search-type scenario,” Wilbanks said.

And some of the new equipment could be especially life saving for SWAT members, Wilbanks said.

“We’re getting remote-controlled robot cameras, which are particularly useful for situations involving unknown threats,” he said. “We do not have that capability right now.”

Wilbanks said the county’s use of the GEMA grant money has allowed them to obtain gear they normally might not have been able to afford.

“It’s just another example of how we can utilize grant funds for our benefit, and in an effective way,” he said.