Wanting to learn more about the local PD, I enrolled in and completed the citizen police academy. I wonder how many FReepers have done the same, you know, learn about something, to look at things from all sides. . .
Very interesting class, learned a lot about laws, policies, practices, everything about the PD; from local patrol and traffic enforcement, to criminal investigations involving murder and child abuse (gawd-awful some of the photos and the child abuse would make you cry).
Anyway, very interesting class on the local PD.
Had a session on SWAT team operations.
The usual that you would expect, sniper rifles and AR-15’s, to a lesson on tear-gas and flash-bang grenades. No armored vehicles though. All the SWAT guys were physically studded-out. Steroid abuse, I think.
Anyway, they showed us a video from a no-knock raid on a residence they conducted.
They wore personal cameras so we saw the raid from their perspective.
Set-up: Seems some guy was lurking in shopping centers and waiting for unsuspecting women to leave the stores and drive home, with him following. He would then follow them into the garage and rape them in their home.
The SWAT teams had him under surveillance for several days at his residence, actually, his parents’ home, and knew his routine and that he slept on the living-room couch fold-out bed.
The SWAT team conducted a no-knock raids at 0300hrs and the video was full of noise (flash-bang), yelling and breaking glass.
One SWAT member goes down the hall to the rear of the home and the dad stumbles out from the bedroom in his t-shirt and shorts and was yelled at to get down while at the same time thrown to the ground.
The SWAT guys told us how it was a great arrest and worked according to plan.
I asked the SWAT guys what would have happened to the father if he came out of the room with a firearm.
They answered he would have been “taken down.”
I replied, ‘wait, you told us the parents didn’t know what their son was up to and if someone breaks into my home in the middle of the night I’m coming out shooting.”
The SWAT guy, with a smirk, replied, “Well, officer safety comes first.” Totally missing the point.
I then asked the SWAT team why they did a middle of the night no-knock raid when they observed this guy for days and knew his routine and all they had to do was wait for him to come out his front door in the morning and arrest him.
Stunned, deer-in-headlights moment.
Stammering an answer was something along the lines of “Well, we um, we couldn’t risk him getting away.”
Rubbish and I told them so. They we not pleased with me.
Met with the Chief of Police and relayed my concerns. He is a new chief and is a nice guy and was not from around here when the raid happened. He told me that since he arrived he has been taking on the SWAT team for ‘issues’ he discovered.
I think he is getting a saddle on those boys.
And the officers, the regular officers on patrol that I met over those 3-months, most did not have a high opinion of SWAT and thought SWAT was too zealous.
Most police officers are regular guys, average Joe’s doing a job the best they know how. They are not black-hearts salivating at the chance to shoot someone or violate rights.
They are honest men.
So, SWAT can be an issue but that doesn’t mean they are un-monitored and running wild, and from my experience, the beat cops are hard-working and honest, where JBTs are an exception rather than the rule.
Regarding abuses, all its takes in some citizen to make an office call with the Chief or Internal Affairs, and failing that, the FBI (as incompetent as most are) relish taking down local cops.
Calling for police officers (and their families) to live in fear is unfair and un-American.
Just curious, how long was that class and where is it offered?