Sheriff Lutz talks Vegas shooting, how Muskingum County stays prepared

ZANESVILLE, Ohio- In light of the mass shooting in Las Vegas many local residents may wonder if law enforcement is prepared if something were to happen here at home.

We talked to Sheriff Matt Lutz from the Muskingum County Sheriff’s Office about how law enforcement in Zanesville train for these situations. Sheriff Lutz talked about how unfortunate today’s events are, but that local law enforcement is ready for anything that may happen.

“I feel strongly that we would be very capable of handling anything that comes up as much as you can be. You know there’s some incidents that are going to be total chaos when they start.”

Sheriff Lutz says the department has a special team that trains an extra eight hours a month to make sure they’re prepared. Members of the special team have to be able to shoot better than the rest of the officers and have higher fitness standards they must meet.

“We have a special response team here. It is a secondary job quote on quote. Like Columbus Police they have a paid, a SWAT team that’s full time SWAT. So that’s all those folks do. We don’t have as much use for the SWAT team down here so we basically are made up of deputies or deputies in my jail. We have 15 members on that special response team. They go through extra training. They have extra equipment that our regular deputies don’t have.”

Sheriff Lutz also talked about how the adage “if you see something, say something” is so important in situations like this. Simply, if you see something out of the ordinary, or someone you know and love is acting strange, speak up.