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?
We lost out Swat team last year and now we are expected to respond with our minimum man power at 3 officers for 20,000 residents. Regional SWAT team is not accepted by any administration in RI, Newport to Portsmouth.
Our agency is supporting our SWAT team with new equipment, more positions and more training time. Patrol officers are also being trained to respond to active shooting scenes, the first three on scene going in and stopping the threat. Out of our Patrol officers, nearly 90% have less than 2 years so most of SWAT are detectives, admin or special units while Patrol has very little experience. The training has stepped up department wide since you might have a 20 year SWAT/gang officer responding to back up a Patrol officer a couple months on their own.
We don’t have SWAT we have SERT, they will tell you that there is a difference??? Anyway, about 10 years ago there were only 2 SERT/SWAT teams in our county, both being supported by 2 individual departments and providing mutual aid to the other surrounding agencies. Today we have 5 separate teams within the county, with 3 of those teams being supported by individual agencies (no longer my agency), with all Officers being part time in that assignment. My department got incorporated into one of the two multijurisdictional teams. The multijurisdictional part I’ve seen, has added to the versitality of the team… more members, funding and equipment, spread over a larger area. Ironically, it has also decreased morale in those departments as spaces on the team are limited, and the typical fairness issues arising such as “he’s getting something that I’m not (or can’t)”. Issues also arise were one contributing department may feel that they contribute more than their share or don’t have enough say in the policies or politics of the team. All in all, I’m not in SWAT and really don’t have a desire to be. I’m greatful that those guys who are on that team are there, even though they kind of scare me a little. After all most of them are a little too anxious to want to shoot something. I guess that mindset has to be present as those are the guys who go in when all other options fail or are exhausted.
Our agency works with the Sheriffs office. Are Department has 43 sworn personnel, and I have tried to speak to Department heads about putting on a small 6 man team, but it has fallen on deaf ears..we have a community of about 25,000. There is a active gang presence in our city. I have worked up North as a Police Officer..the Sheriffs office there recruited members from small Departments and we were renamed a multijurisdictional response team. We were on call and it increased the manpower of the SRT team by at least 15 people. I have over 12 yrs of experience and have trained in SRT operations and weapons. I do think it is a added sense of security to have at least a part-time srt team, in case of crisis incidents. Even though we work well the local Sheriffs office and have used their swat team before, I beleive we should have our own team. I have presented numorous articles and information on obtaining equipment to develop our own team, along with proper training and command. It has fallen on deaf ears. I have informed department heads that most of the equipment can be obtained on Federal Grants and would not cost the City or PD any money, other than training. We are soon going to implement Patrol Rifles for our department. The situations here in Florida are getting worse with Officers getting killed by gang members and I beleive Officers need to be trained and ready for just that kind of encounter.
We have a Special Operations Response Team for a transit police agency that services 1400 square miles and 4 counties. We have been well equipped, and trained courtesy of DHS grants, etc. But our chief refuses to allow us to operate. Instead, he signed all tactical operations over to the primary municipality via a 10 year MOU. So therefore we exist on paper, oh…and for GREAT dog and pony shows! Nice equipment though!
no, our Swat guys belong to a multi-jurisdictional team.
Why is a full-time team important. If you have a full-time warrant section, then you already have a basis for an SRT. You’re not in the Army. If you want to do Army stuff, I’m sure they could use you.
Frank, Your stats are what I would have expected, the normal poor planning and knee jerk response to training seems to plague LE agencies everywhere. The crap shoot of gambling that nothing will happpen and they won;t get sued is almost criminal at times. Better utilization of the specialized units for training and in turn making a better prepared patrol division and tactical unit all in one. I’ve routinely heard I don’t understand budgets but I do understand saving lives and making sure the guys get what they need to do the job effectively not fashionably. Eventually the realization the police departments aren’t day care agencies will come to light.