SWAT: Growing or Fading?

Frank Borelli Editor-in-Chief Officer.com The poll question on Officer.com for the past few days has been, "Does your agency have a full time dedicated Special Operations unit?"  The response kind of surprised me and gave me pause. The choices for answers were (paraphrased): Yes, we have one or more full time teams No, our SWAT guys are part time SWAT, full time something else No, our SWAT guys are part time belonging to a multi-jurisdictional team No, we have no SWAT personnel Now when I crafted and posted that question I had an expectation of what the responses would be.  That expectation was built, in large part, on my knowledge of SWAT teams in the Washington DC Metropolitan area.  Boy was I wrong. I expected that about 25% of the responding agencies represented would have full time teams.  I figured out half (50%) would have part time teams.  I guesstimated about 10% with part-time multi-jurisdictional players and the remaining 15% without teams at all. According to the poll results so far only 14% of the responding agencies represented have a full time team (or teams).  44% have part time SWAT guys who do patrol or some other function full time.  16% have part-time officers who belong to multi-jurisdictional teams with 26% of the respondents not having any SWAT personnel at all. Here is why that's bugging me:  There were NO SWAT teams prior to 1966.  In 1966 after sniper and riot incidents, SWAT teams began to stand up aross the country.  When that happened, patrol response protocols for some high risk incidents changed.  Secure the perimeter, hold what you've got.  SWAT is on the way. The number of SWAT Teams grew.  Protocols evolved.  Then came Columbine.  Response protocols changed in a major way and patrol officers were required to enter certain high risk scenarios.  Such an outlook also applies to certain counter-terrorism response scenarios. Given all that, are agencies trying to strengthen their special operations units?  or are they attempting to cut the Specops budget to help cover the costs of Active Shooter training, new patrol equipment (rifles), etc.  It is my sincere hope that the law enforcement specops units are being supported with budget and protocol better now than ever before.  However, I also hope that agencies are providing that support while growing the training and equipment for patrol response to high risk scenarios we can no longer sit and wat on. What is your agency doing and what are YOUR thoughts on the matter?