Posted on 09/13/2011 12:18:02 PM PDT by Immerito
Does SWAT Need to Be Explained?
Written by Ed Sanow
I get frustrated with the educational sessions at chiefs conferences on SWAT. The attendees are treated like kindergarten kids. There are some vewy, vewy bad people out there. They wont do what the nice police officers tell them. So, sometimes, those nice police officers need help from special police officers.
You got to be kidding me! Some 90% of agencies serving populations of more than 50,000 people, and 70% of agencies serving smaller populations have some kind of SWAT team. Yet, SWAT has to be explained like it is something new to policing?
When someone has risen to the rank of chief or sheriff, then SWAT has to be explained to them at a chiefs conference? Have we, as team leaders and team commanders, done that a bad job of explaining what SWAT is and does? As well as when a SWAT team could, or must, be used? Honestly? Yes.
When the local police beat reporter knows more about SWAT than the chief or sheriff, you have a problem. Combine that lack of operational knowledge with the slightest mistake during a SWAT operation and now you have a huge crisis as well as a disbanded tactical team.
SWAT teams, even the better ones, are going to make operations errors. The key, then, is getting everyone up the chain of command familiar with SWAT operations. That especially includes the PIO, who gets to talk to that crime reporter.
Team commanders must raise the profile of their teams. Stay active. Yes, I mean do warrant service and drug raids even if you have to poach the work. First, your team needs the training time under true callout conditions. If all your team does is train, but seldom deploy, you will end up training just to train. You need to train to fight. You already know that.
Second, make SWAT familiar to senior police staff. Everyone fears the unknown. Dont let SWAT be that unknown. Make deploying SWAT something that is routine, not something only done after much hand-wringing. Oh, no! You mean we have to call SWAT? Oh, I dont know, I just dont know. Really? Call SWAT? Really?
Yes, you should have clear guidelines for activating the team. But how many times has the callout of a part-time team been delayed or denied when those callout criteria were met? We really do need to explain that SWAT is less of a threat than the people in the calls we are responding toyou know, those vewy, vewy bad people.
Part of the chiefs or sheriffs fear of the unknown with SWAT is they truly may not know the capabilitiesand the limitationsof their particular team. Sometimes we act as if we can do anything and everything. The chief might suspect differently.
In the immortal words of Inspector Harry Callahan, A mans got to know his limitations. So must your SWAT team. Man-up now and draw the line. We can do barricaded gunman, but we cant do hostage rescue. We can do bus assault, but we cant rappel. We can do chemical agents, but we cant do explosive entry. Whatever it may be, know what you can and cant do.
Do only what you are excellent at doing. Dont do what you have done once or twice in practice, fully-rested, fully-hydrated, in the middle of a nice sunny day with your full team on-hand. Know the difference. Know what you can do and then find a way to prove it to the administration.
So, do you request a meeting with senior staff and have a show and tell with all your cool gear? Perhaps have a few of them stop by the range on training day? The very best way to prove the capabilities of your team is to conduct an all-discipline, mock exercise. It needs to be realistic and relevant: active shooter, barricaded gunmansomething that makes sense. Remember the goal is to convince the chief of your teams capabilities. Inspire the chiefs confidence in the team. Educate the chief.
You dont need to include Fire/EMS for the first few of these, but they eventually need to be included. However, you do need to include the entire chain of police command: dispatch, patrol, SWAT, negotiators, supervisors, the chief. Perhaps just a table-top exercise for the upper management, but they need to be somehow involved because that is the point. Also, the chief needs to be there during the after-action debrief.
You need to educate your chief. Dont let the local press do it. Dont force the chief to attend a class at a conference on it. You do it.
"Teacher, why are you telling us this?"
"Well, Tommy, we want you to know that questioning authority is never a good idea. And by the way, tell your Dad not to act surprised tonight, okay?"
2)Handcuff homeowner/wife and kids.
3)Hunt down and shoot family dog.
4)Ransack house.
5)Find out at wrong house.
6)Uncuff family members, warn them not to say anything under penalty of law.
7)Leave
There are a lot more of us, then there are of them. Plenty of us have specialized military training as well. They are starting to get out of line.
Considering when Chief Daryl Gates of the LAPD came up with the concept of SWAT. Its original definition was Special Weapons Attack Team.
I’ll let you take it from there.
Jack.
This could have been written in any Fascist or Communist country to rave reviews. Goebbels would have been proud. Who the hell reads this crap? The Tactical Responder? Give me a break.
And they can do animal control, too!
No, but the widespread use of SWAT teams needs to be seriously re-examined.
Disgusting.
Disgusting-er...
Not really.
It’s original designation was Special Weapons and Tactics.
Ouch / LOL — That’s a witty way to describe it.
Comparing SWAT to Nazis is WAAAY out of line.
Nazis were honest and up front about being Nazis.
—as I have oft posted— SWAT teams should generally be disbanded, issued a .38 Special with two speedloaders, get equipped with a set of brogans with soles about an inch thick and given a beat to cover twice a night -on foot- starting about 10pm-—
There are a few times a SWAT team is needed. A couple years ago some nut job here in Pittsburgh shot and killed three policemen who responded to a family fight. Killed the three ambush style.
Pittsburgh SWAT was call out and I think they did a damn good job. In the face of constant gunfire they drove their armored car on to the lawn to get the men shot{ They didnt know that they were dead}. they didnt shoot up the house{As I would have seeing three of my co-workers killed by a coward}. They talked to him, when One of the snipers shot the AK out of his hands.
The scumbag was captured alive{ A little scuffed up} and convicted on three counts of murder and hopefully will be seeing the needle,and the judge added 80 years onto his term so he will never get to see sunshine again.
All this cop hate is really disturbing. Yeah there are bad police. Sure they screw up. Some of the people here sound like they would have rooted for the man who killed the policemen who showed up that morning.
Many so-called "SWAT" teams do the vast majority of their deployments against harmless victims. Good for them, since their tactics are so sloppy that they'd be mincemeat if they tried to attack someone with the skill and determination to fight back effectively. Not so good for their victims, though.
It is more than a bit disturbing that SWAT teams seem to have their own magazine.
I don’t know; the way that arthritic lab is holding that tennis ball in its jaws, it is clearly a vicious killer.
:-)
( /sarc )
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