SALISBURY — When Travis Allen took over at the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office in December, he merged two existing units to create the SOCAT Unit.

SOCAT stands for Sheriff’s Office Criminal Apprehension Team. It is a newly formed street crimes unit that serves Rowan County through community projects, street-level narcotic cases, fugitive apprehension, warrant services, gang identification and investigations.

The unit can perform high-risk search warrants. Most of the members are also part of the special response team (SRT), the Rowan County version of a SWAT division.

The new unit is comprised of a sergeant, six corporals and two deputies.

SOCAT is available to assist police departments within the county on issues they may have in their communities. SOCAT recently assisted Salisbury Police with a project that resulted in several guns seized and arrests.

In January alone, the unit accounted for 14 drug-related arrests, 201 warrants served, six search warrants served, nine weapons seized, 110 citations and 150 traffic stops.