Quote:
Originally Posted by The Reaper
The real problem is that when the only tool you have is a hammer, all problems tend to look like nails.
The SWAT teams are not cheap.
They (and their equipment and training) have to be justified by utilization.
So instead of Officer Friendly stopping by for a chat, or asking you to come down to the station house, a dozen heavily armed intruders (who have obtained a no-notice warrant), kick in your door at zero dark thirty, cuff everyone up who has survived, and go about trashing your home.
As most communities have few scenarios where a SWAT team would be required, they have been assigned additional duties to include warrant service and raids for less and less severe crimes.
Criminals have adopted this same MO and use it, frequently under the guise of being police, to conduct home invasions.
Resist, and you run the chance of being incarcerated, should you survive.
Compound this with the emerging harassment technique of calling in an anonymous report on someone you dislike in hopes of targeting them for a paramilitary assault on their home or place of business. Nothing like seeing a couple of dozen heavily-armed officers descending to kick in the door and dragging off a potential rival, even if they aren't guilty, right?
LAPD started the SWAT concept with highly trained individuals serving a specific purpose in a huge metropolitan area. Today, most small towns with 10,000 residents or more have some sort of tactical team of dubious qualifications. And yes, to a large extent, the Federal money has a lot to do with it.
I believe that we should qualify and license SWAT teams and limit their employment to serious offenses requiring a paramilitary effort.
TR
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Not necessarily so.
I started the SWAT team for my agency in 1980; prior to that the only unit of tactical significance was a counter-sniper team. My department sent an officer from the training section to two different SWAT schools, one in Texas, the other in Florida. When he came back he knew he still didn't have the expertise to train and operate a team. He asked me to help. I told him I would, but only if I could also go through the course/vetting process. He agreed.
It took three months to prepare, but in the end although we had five trainers running the course (including me when I wasn't acting as a student), I taught over fifty percent of the course, running it in most respects like a mini-Ranger school doing things like running a mile in an M-17 protective mask because they have to be able to fight hand-to-hand wearing it.
The main difference between my agency's team and everybody else's ... and still is to a great extent from what I've seen ... is that we run a TOC staffed only by SWAT personnel for every operation. When you combine the intelligence we gather before and during mission execution with the discipline we developed during the training phase (I can place a man in a position in sub-zero temperatures and come back six hours later and know he'll be in the exact same position, not down at the donut shop) we could operate where others wouldn't expect us, make entries in unexpected places (I taught explosive entry to central Indiana tactical units that were involved in security for the Tenth Pan American Games in Indianapolis
in 1986 ... long before other non-federal agencies ever contemplated such techniques.) to resolve incidents with minimum injuries and/or loss of life.
I taught them to think outside the box ... and that their most formidable weapon was their brain ... not the 'toys'. So ... it was not only Special Weapons, but also Special Tactics, military in style, conditioned by a different set of rules of engagement ... the rules captured in state statute, federal code and the state and federal constitutions.
Bottom line: whether it was SWAT or regular street operations I always preached that you treat everyone like a million bucks, the only difference was that you always had a plan to kill'em (that you hopefully didn't have to execute); that was the essential element of being prepared to protect and serve.
I had six police action shootings during my thirty-four year law enforcement career, but only one occurred during a SWAT operation.
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