Madison County sheriff, U.S. Attorney reflect on 9/11 attacks

JACKSON, Tenn. — The tragic event on Sept. 11 changed law enforcement forever.

“When I got in the building and got upstairs, they said an airliner had just hit it. And I said ‘Oh. That’s not an accident,'” said Fred Godwin, Legal Advisor for the Madison County Sheriff’s Office.

Sept. 11 is remembered as a day of loss for American citizens.

The devastating attack killed thousands of Americans and tested the strength of our national security.

Madison County Sheriff John Mehr was working for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation at the time, 20 years ago.

He says when the towers fell, he received a call from then U.S. Attorney Fred Godwin about a plan of action.

“We’ve got to have a meeting. We need to have phone calls. We need to have local law enforcement and numbers that we can bring together quickly. There are going to be calls coming in that you will have to hear,” Mehr said.

Mehr says before 9/11, the TBI had formed a group to monitor terrorist activity in the state.

So when the tragic event occurred, they were prepared to help even when if they couldn’t be in New York City.

“We had to run down leads that the FBI was running down. The FBI has a limited number of people. You need state and local law enforcement to assist you, and the best thing I think we had going in West Tennessee was this working group,” Godwin said.

Mehr says 9/11 changed the way national and local law enforcement communicated. And the working group became a federal mandate for every state in America.

“It did change it across the country. It became a federal task force, and you ended up with training and information sharing,” Mehr said.

Godwin and Mehr say that if another event like 9/11 occurred, the partnership between local and national law enforcement is stronger than ever.