Thanks SWAT. You guys are real heroes.
Standard operating procedures for most departments is to assemble the entire SWAT team at a safe location before attempting entry.
SWAT teams treat “active shooters”, i.e. guys who go someplace just to kill a lot of people, the same way they treat a barricaded suspect with hostages. The problem is, “active shooters” don’t wait. They don’t want to negotiate. They just want to kill.
Studies have shown that in the vast majority of cases “active shooters” commit suicide as soon as they are confronted with armed force, even if it’s only a single officer - assuming they haven’t finished what they came to do and killed themselves before the first officers arrive on the scene. If the first cop on the scene in this case had gone in there’s a chance he might have saved some lives.
The sad and ironic corollary is the recent case in Oakland, CA where SWAT went in on a barricaded suspect, who was not an “active shooter” but was better armed than they thought, without making an adequate effort to negotiate or wear the guy down. Two good men got killed.
Police forces need to treat “barricaded suspects” and “active shooters” differently. Unfortunately this places the terrible burden of assessment on the first officers responding to a very chaotic and dangerous situation. Mistakes will be made and innocent people will die because of those mistakes.
As long as there are places where sick bastards know they can go and find people who are forbidden by law from defending themselves this sort of thing is going to continue to happen.
The change in police attitudes started about 20 years ago and went from to “Protect and Serve” to “I dont care how many people or dogs have to die, I’m going home without a scratch”.
They kick some *ss in the movies, though...
The msm calling a receptionist who played dead and called 911........a hero.
FGS, simply a diversion from the fact that the SWAT team waited three hours, no doubt allowing people to die of their injuries.
“WTF do we spend all this money on SWAT teams?”
SWAT teams are for kicking in old ladies door in the middle of the night to confiscate 1/2 oz. bags of pot, or if they can’t find it, then to plant said 1/2 oz. bag of pot and then “discover” it. THAT is THEIR job.
Now, if you want someone to come in and rescue you from mortal danger, you need an armed citizen or the military.
Rotation in the squad is regular. In a department of, say 300, it would not be uncommon to have several dozen cops working detective, street, whatever, ...on any given shift...who are active or former members of the team.
Bank hostage situations....apprehension of real bad dudes on warrant....stuff like that....time to set up and execute...there's that stuff to do. The team in my department is run by a sergeant....who is a MASTER SERGEANT in the Army Reserve....wounded Viet vet, duty in Iraq in '91....and most recently was busting doors in Fallujah bagging insurgents...during the thick of the conflict...at age 54....getting shot at with bullets and grenades. Nicest, smartest guy you'd care to meet; a professional soldier; a patriot conservative; the best cop I've ever seen at work. He affects all the guys he trains in good ways.
So there's more to SWAT than portrayed on TV. It helps keep a department on top of training.....not wasting time trying to train guys who aren't interested...just the motivated volunteers. And if you're lucky enough to have a great leader like my department had, you know who's running the show when it hits the fan, and you have confidence, absolutely, to follow him to hell if he needs you to. I would. Maybe that's where this department fell flat on its face , and was derelict in its duty....a lousy leader?