(BOP) - Earlier this month, the Attorney General requested assistance in Washington, DC and Miami, FL in response to extensive protest activity related to the death of George Floyd. As a result, the Bureau deployed Special Operations Response Teams (SORT) and Disturbance Control Teams (DCT) from across the country. During a large-scale operation such as this, numerous support staff were also needed on-site to ensure the health and welfare of the team members. A Food Service Support Team quickly set up a mobile kitchen near the Bureau's Central Office in DC to provide meals for the SORT and DCT staff while they were deployed.
Despite the emergent and tense situations they faced, the SORT and DCT staff exercised restraint and displayed the training and high level of skills they have developed as corrections professionals. Bureau staff sought to treat everyone they encountered with dignity, and respected individuals' rights to protest, even on those occasions when respect was not reciprocated. Their professional response yielded expected results and aided in de-escalating tensions and aggression.
With the mission support ending sooner than anticipated and upon de-mobilization of the teams, arrangements were made with a local homeless shelter for the donation of unused food items, including box meals and small food stuffs. Before returning home, some SORT and DCT members personally delivered the various donated items, approximately 10,000 units. The deployment and execution of this special mission is a testament to the Bureau's ability to readily assist law enforcement partners nationwide.