The whole Boston affair showed how ineffective the entire law enforcement community would have been against even modestly trained and skilled terrorists.
After shutting down most of the city of Watertown, and deploying tremendous resources, a single stupid, untrained, and wounded terrorist on foot, blocks away from the initial firefight which killed his accomplice, went undetected after a day of searching by the entire law enforcement operation. He was found by a local citizen who decided to go out into his back yard for a smoke.
Meanwhile, with a thankfully incapacitated terrorist a short distance away, the law enforcement types put on an outdoor press conference with the governor and other officials present. The location of the press conference was broadcast before the event. Had the attack been the work of trained terrorists instead of a couple of idiots, an utter disaster could have unfolded.
Although multiple people were killed, and many injured, the situation could have been much worse. All of the law enforcement organizations involved should study what went wrong, and ensure that in the future they can respond more effectively.
Sadly the concept that was the genesis of SWAT has morphed into a bungling bureaucratic system that now treats citizens as the enemy.
I don’t think there’s any going back. Once the civilian ‘training’ targets came out, Boston (and worse to come) was inevitable. New Orleans was a bit of a harbinger; wait til the next disaster or civil unrest...we’ll all know where we stand.