I think it started with the war on terror under Bush and went on steroids with Obama’s stimulus. My hometown now gas night vision goggles to catch teenagers making out at the beach.
SWAT goes back way further than that.
See post 17, originally they were formed to counter the sophisticated gun violence of the 1960s when some groups were taking on combat activity with bombs, snipers, barricaded shootouts, etc.
wiki
“”A report issued by the Los Angeles Police Department, following a shootout with the Symbionese Liberation Army in 1974, offers one of the few firsthand accounts by the department regarding SWAT history, operations, and organization.[4] On page 100 of the report, the Department cites four trends which prompted the development of SWAT. These included riots such as the Watts Riots, which in the 1960s forced the LAPD and other police departments into tactical situations for which they were ill-prepared; the emergence of snipers as a challenge to civil order; political assassinations; and the threat of urban guerrilla warfare by militant groups.””