TAPS Drill
Honor Guard and Drill Team
The purpose of this initiative is three-fold with the each sub-objective serving the other.
The primary objective is to help communities sharpen their focus on prevention activities with the greatest potential to prevent youth violence and its consequences.
The strategies represented in this request include those with a focus on preventing youth violence from happening in the first place as well as approaches to reduce the immediate and long-term harms of youth violence in order to prevent future violence.
The secondary objective is to improve the overall conditions of our communities by using tactics such as Crime Prevention by Environmental Design, Problem Oriented Policing and the leveraging of multiple agency resources available to the communities to improve the overall quality of life in Mobile County, Alabama.
With our third initiative, we offer Honor Guard training to First Responder agencies. The training is based on the most recent edition of US Army regulations and is available at your agency or during open sessions of our school in Mobile, AL.
TAPS Drill is a 501(c)3 organization which is recognized by the Internal Revenue Service as a tax exempt, public entity. Our proceeds are directed toward the funding of our youth programs.
EIN: 93-4618637
Our Plan
Individual tactics are based on these foundations:
1. Promote family environments that support healthy development.
2. Provide quality education early in life.
3. Strengthen youth’s skills.
4. Connect youth to caring adults and activities.
5. Create protective community environments.
6. Intervene to lessen harms and prevent future risk.
The approaches to each of these tactics will be conducted in multi-front initiatives, simultaneously as described throughout our Strategic Plan (available upon request).
Who We Are
Our organization, established in 2023, is serving the Mobile, AL community with our efforts:
We are all sworn Sheriff’s Deputies acting as “TAPS Drill” in our free time.
We have trained more than 300 middle school students in military drill and ceremony skills and have hosted a drill competition for them at Fort Whiting, in Mobile, AL.
On duty, we are known in Mobile, AL as, The Black Hats Honor Guard.
We have made it our off-duty mission to support seven under served neighborhoods beginning the operations in the middle schools located therein.
We expect the following concrete results:
1. An increase in the program’s enrollment numbers
2. An increase in grade point averages due to exposure to discipline and integrity training
3. A decrease in youth violence due to the close presence of caring adults
4. An increase in school security because of the presence of active law enforcement officers.
Contact Us
If you would like to contact us regarding your event, training your honor guard or just to get to know us see below!