But that’s the whole point of having a SWAT team in the first place; the “regular” officers should not be issued, nor should they be training, with that kind of gear. If a situation like you describe crops up, the “regular” officers should call in the SWAT group to handle the “tactical” aspects of the situation. “Tactical” gear carries too much emotional baggage, and warps the beat-patrolman mindset too much.
Also, the whole ‘maybe we just want to be as well equipped as possible should that situation arise in “our little towns”’ attitude is just another statist variation of the same justification the NSA is giving for pulling in every scrap of information on everyone, whether they’re a suspect or not.
All well and good...except the days of waiting around for SWAT to show up..particularly in areas without full time on duty SWAT teams, are over. If you had kids in a school, with an active shooter...actively shooting children, would you want the “regular officers” to sit around on their ass? How many people can be killed waiting a half hour for the SWAT team to be called in, assembled, and make an entry? Maybe the entire school. The lesson from Columbine was just that...and departments are sued for a lack of or slow response to these situations. So the acquisition and training with this equipment is actually a good thing. That being said, how it is utilized can be bone headed at times...this I admit. Again...my two cents worth