The Covington County Incident Response Team will hold its 9th Annual Pistol Competition on April 8, at the Wilbur W. Williams Law Enforcement Training Center.

The competition is open to law enforcement officers only and participants must use their duty weapons.

Officials expect at least 20 participants with the hopes of the number being higher.

LEOs from all over Covington County are expected to participate, and in past years the event has also drawn LEOs from Florida and Georgia.

There will be a $10 entry fee for all shooters.

“The money that we make from this is extremely important,” IRT team leader Sgt. Nic Ireland said. “We are made of officers from different departments, so we are kind of like a non-profit group. All the money we make from this goes into a general fund that we use to buy new equipment and other things we need to do our job.”

As for the competition, it will consist of three individual events, with the winners competing in the championship round.

While the competition is only open to law enforcement, Ireland said that the general public is welcome to attend the event.

“We always have someone cooking hamburgers or something like that around lunch,” Ireland said. “It’s a great opportunity for the public to come out and meet the local officers if they have never had the chance to. Overall, it’s just a really good day.”

IRT is used by Andalusia Police Department, Covington County Sheriff’s Department, Opp Police Department, Florala Police Department, the Drug Task Force and other local police departments to help resolve hostage situations, barricaded gunman situations, high-risk arrest warrants and high-risk search warrants.

For further details, contact Capt. David Harrell at 493-4511.