The other element is the need for an agency to demonstrate the need for their SWAT team once they’ve gotten into their budget.
So they have to go looking for ways to use it in order to continue justify it’s budget.
I’m also betting that the sequester prompted them to stretch the boundaries in looking for justifications, because if there is anything that needed sequestered out of existence it is an EPA SWAT team.
That “use it or lose it” mentality in federal budgets is probably the number one cause of stupid decision making and wasted tax dollars in every agency at every level of government.
I think one of the worst consequences of 9/11 was the flood of money that went to agencies—federal, state, and local—to outfit these sorts of teams. It’s absurd that a local police force now has a SWAT team that they’re using to serve a summons for not mowing your grass.