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ASWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) team is a generic term for apolice tactical unit within theUnited States.
SWAT units are generally trained, equipped, and deployed to resolve "high-risk situations", often those regular police units are not trained or equipped to handle, such asshootouts,standoffs,raids,hostage-takings, andterrorism. SWAT units are equipped with specialized weapons and equipment not normally issued to regular police units, such asautomatic firearms, high-calibersniper rifles,stun grenades,body armor,ballistic shields,night-vision devices, andarmored vehicles, among others. SWAT units are often trained in special tactics such asclose-quarters combat,door breaching,crisis negotiation, andde-escalation.
The first SWAT units were formed in the 1960s to handleriot control and violent confrontations with criminals. The number and usage of SWAT units increased in the 1980s during theWar on Drugs and the 1990s following incidents such as theNorth Hollywood shootout andColumbine High School massacre, with further increases in the 2000s forcounterterrorism interests in the aftermath of theSeptember 11 attacks. In the United States by 2005, SWAT teams were deployed 50,000 times every year, almost 80% of the time to servesearch warrants, most often fornarcotics. By 2015, the number of annual SWAT deployments had increased to nearly 80,000 times a year.[1] Despite their heightened involvement in high-risk scenarios, research on their use of force has shown varied results. A study by professor Jimmy J. Williams and professor David Westall found that there wasn't a significant difference in the frequency of use of force between SWAT and non-SWAT officers when responding to similar situations.[2] The term is primarily used by American Law Enforcement agencies, but has also been used by ChinesePublic Security Bureaus.[3]
The United States National Tactical Officers Association's definition of SWAT is:
SWAT: A designated law enforcement team whose members are recruited, selected, trained, equipped and assigned to resolve critical incidents involving a threat to public safety which would otherwise exceed the capabilities of traditional law enforcement first responders and/or investigative units.[4]
According to theHistorical Dictionary of Law Enforcement, the term "SWAT" was used as an acronym for the "Special Weapons and Tactics" established as a 100-man specialized unit in 1964 by thePhiladelphia Police Department in response to an alarming increase inbank robberies. The purpose of this unit was to react quickly and decisively to bank robberies while they were in progress, using a large number of specially trained officers who had a great amount of firepower at their disposal. The tactic worked and was used to resolve other types of incidents involving heavily armed criminals.[5][6] TheLos Angeles Police Department (LAPD)Special Weapons and Tactics was established in 1967.[7] LAPD inspectorDaryl Gates envisioned the "SWAT" acronym to be "Special Weapons Attack Team" but this was not accepted by deputy chiefEdward M. Davis who instead approved Special Weapons and Tactics.[8]
The LAPD promoted what became known as SWAT teams for a variety of reasons. After the racially-chargedWatts riots inLos Angeles in August 1965, the LAPD began considering tactics it could use when faced with urban unrest, rioting, or widespread violence. Daryl Gates, who led the LAPD response to the riots, would later write that police at the time did not face a single mob, but rather "people attacking from all directions".[9]New York University professorChristian Parenti has written that SWAT teams were originally conceived of as an "urbancounterinsurgency bulwark".[10]: 112
Another reason for the creation of SWAT teams was the fear of lone or barricaded gunmen who might outperform police in a shootout, as happened in Austin withCharles Whitman.[9]
After the LAPD's establishment of its own SWAT team, manylaw enforcement agencies in United States established their own specialized units under various names. Gates explained in his autobiographyChief: My Life in the LAPD that he neither developed SWAT tactics nor the associated and often distinctive equipment; but that he supported the underlying concept, tried to empower his people to develop it, and generally lent them moral support.[11][12]
SWAT-type operations were conducted north of Los Angeles in the farming community ofDelano, California on the border betweenKern andTulare Counties in theSan Joaquin Valley. At the time, theUnited Farm Workers union led byCésar Chavez was stagingnumerous protests in Delano in a strike that would last over five years from 1965 to 1970.[9] Though the strike never turned violent, theDelano Police Department responded by forming ad-hoc SWAT-type units involving crowd and riot control, sniper skills, and surveillance.[9] Television news stations and print media carried live and delayed reportage of these events across the United States. Personnel from the LAPD, having seen these broadcasts, contacted Delano and inquired about the program. One officer then obtained permission to observe the Delano Police Department's special weapons and tactics units in action, and afterwards, he took what he had learned back to Los Angeles, where his knowledge was used and expanded on to form the LAPD's own first SWAT unit.
John Nelson was the officer who conceived the idea to form a specially trained and equipped unit in the LAPD, intended to respond to and manage critical situations involving shootings while minimizing police casualties. Inspector Gates approved this idea, and he formed a small select group of volunteer officers. This first SWAT unit initially consisted of fifteen teams of four men each, making a total staff of sixty. These officers were given special status and benefits, and were required to attend special monthly training sessions. The unit also served as a security unit for police facilities during civil unrest. TheLAPD SWAT units were organized as "D Platoon" in the Metro division.[11]
Early police powers and tactics used by SWAT teams were aided by legislation passed in 1967-8 with the help ofRepublicanHouse representativeDonald Santarelli. The legislation was promoted within the context of fears over thecivil rights movement,race riots, theBlack Panther Party, and the emergingWar on Drugs.[9]
The first significant deployment of the LAPD SWAT was on December 9, 1969, when an attempt by the LAPD to serve arrest warrants against the Black Panthers led to a four-hour standoff at their Los Angeles headquarters at 41st and Central, during which over 5,000 rounds were exchanged between police and the Panthers. During the shootout, Daryl Gates called theDepartment of Defense, requesting and receiving permission to use agrenade launcher; however, it was never actually used. The Panthers eventually surrendered, with four Panthers and four officers being injured. All six arrested Panthers were acquitted of the most serious charges brought against them, including conspiracy to murder police officers, because it was ruled that they acted in self-defense.[9]
By 1974, there was a general acceptance of SWAT as a police resource in Los Angeles.
On the afternoon of May 17, 1974, elements of theSymbionese Liberation Army (SLA), a group of heavily armedleft-wingguerrillas, barricaded themselves in a residence on East 54th Street at Compton Avenue in Los Angeles. Coverage of the siege was broadcast to millions via television and radio and featured in the world press for days afterwards. SWAT teams engaged in a several-hour gun battle with the SLA; no police were wounded, but the six SLA members died in the conflict, which ended when the house caught fire and burned to the ground.
By the time of the SLA shootout, SWAT teams had reorganized into six 10-man teams, each team being divided further into two five-man units, called elements. An element consisted of an element leader, two assaulters, a scout, and a rear-guard. The normal complement of weapons was a sniper rifle (a.243-caliberbolt-action, based on the ordnance expended by officers at the shootout), two.223-caliber semi-automatic rifles, and two shotguns. SWAT officers also carried their service revolvers in shoulder holsters. Standard gear included afirst aid kit, gloves, and amilitary gas mask. At a time when officers were usually issued six-shot revolvers and shotguns, it was a significant change to have police armed with semi-automatic rifles. The encounter with the heavily armed Symbionese Liberation Army, however, sparked a trend towards SWAT teams being issuedbody armor and automatic weapons of various types.
A report issued by the LAPD after the SLA shootout offers one of the few firsthand accounts by the department regarding SWAT history, operations, and organization. On page 100 of the report, the Department cites four trends which prompted the development of SWAT. These included riots such as theWatts riots, which in the 1960s forced the LAPD and other police departments into tactical situations for which they were ill-prepared; the emergence of snipers as a challenge to civil order; political assassinations; and the threat of urbanguerrilla warfare by militant groups. "The unpredictability of the sniper and his anticipation of normal police response increase the chances of death or injury to officers. To commit conventionally trained officers to a confrontation with a guerrilla-trained militant group would likely result in a high number of casualties among the officers and the escape of the guerrillas." To deal with these under conditions of urban violence, the LAPD formed SWAT, notes the report. The report states on page 109, "The purpose of SWAT is to provide protection, support, security, firepower, and rescue to police operations in high personal risk situations where specialized tactics are necessary to minimize casualties."[13]
In 1981U.S. Congress passed the Military Cooperation with Law Enforcement Act, giving police access to military intelligence, infrastructure, and weaponry in the fight against drugs.Reagan subsequently declared drugs to be a threat to U.S. national security.[14]: 76–77 In 1988 the Reagan administration encouraged Congress to create the Edward Byrne Memorial State and Local Law Enforcement Program. The program modified existing federal aid structures to local police, making it easier to transfer money and equipment to fight the War on Drugs. Police forces also received increased assistance from theDEA. The money resulted in the creation of many narcotics task forces, and SWAT teams became an important part of these forces.[14]: 73–75
In 1972, paramilitary police units launched a few hundred drug raids annually within the United States. In the early 1980s, SWAT drug raid numbers increased to 3000 annually, and by 1996, 30,000 raids annually.[14]: 73–75 During the 1990s, according toThe Capital Times inMadison, Wisconsin, weapons donations from theDepartment of Defense greatly bolstered the number of SWAT teams and the extent of their operations. The paper reported that the military transferred nearly 100,000 pieces of military equipment to Wisconsin police departments in the 1990s.[14]: 77
Criminal justice professors Peter Kraska and Victor Kappeler, in their studyMilitarizing American Police: The Rise and Normalization of Paramilitary Units, surveyed police departments nationwide and found that their deployment of paramilitary units had grown tenfold between the early 1980s and late 1990s.[15]
TheColumbine High School massacre in Colorado on April 20, 1999 was another seminal event in SWAT tactics and police response. As perpetratorsEric Harris and Dylan Klebold were shooting students and staff inside the school, officers did not intervene in the shooting, but instead set a perimeter as they were trained to do. By the time they did enter the school, 12 people were killed and Harris and Klebold had committed suicide. They were also heavily criticized for not saving teacher Dave Sanders, who had died fromblood loss, three hours after the SWAT first entered the school.[16][17] As noted in an article in theChristian Science Monitor, "Instead of being taught to wait for the SWAT team to arrive, street officers are receiving the training and weaponry to take immediate action during incidents that clearly involve suspects' use of deadly force."[18] The article further reported that street officers were increasingly being armed with rifles, and issued heavy body armor and ballistic helmets, items traditionally associated with SWAT units. The idea was to train and equip street officers to make a rapid response to so-calledactive shooter situations. In these situations, it was no longer acceptable to simply set up a perimeter and wait for SWAT. As an example, in the policy and procedure manual of theMinneapolis Police Department, it is stated, "MPD personnel shall remain cognizant of the fact that in many active shooter incidents, innocent lives are lost within the first few minutes of the incident. In some situations, this dictates the need to rapidly assess the situation and act quickly in order to save lives."[19]
According to criminal justice professor Cyndi Banks, theWar on Terror, like the War on Drugs, became the context of a significant expansion of SWAT policing.[20] Whereas some have attributed this expansion to "mission creep" and themilitarization of police, other scholars argue that increased SWAT policing is a response to real or perceivedmoral panics associated with fear of crime and terrorism. Banks writes that SWAT team employment of military veterans has influenced their tactics and perspective.[20]: 33–39
Countering the view that post-9/11 SWAT policing represents the militarization of police forces, scholar den Heyer writes that SWAT policing is part of a natural progression towards police professionalization. Den Heyer also argues that while SWAT teams continue to be deployed to execute large numbers of drug warrants, this is a rational use of available police resources.[20]: 39 Other defenders of SWAT deployments state that police have every reason to minimize risks to themselves during raids.[20]: 39
By 2005, the number of yearly SWAT deployments in the United States had increased to 50,000,[21]: 183–4 [22]: 13–14 most often to serve drug-related warrants in private homes.[20][23]: 205 According to a study by theACLU, just under 80% of SWAT deployments were used to serve arrest warrants.[24]
Officers have cited safety as the main reason for use of SWAT teams, stating that SWAT units would frequently be called if there were a possibility a suspect might be armed. For instance, in 2006, only two police officers were killed in the arrest of 2 million drug suspects, a low casualty rate possibly stemming from the military equipment and tactics used in the raids.[22]: 13–14
On February 7, 2008, a siege and subsequent firefight with a shooter in theWinnetka neighborhood of Los Angeles led to the first line-of-duty death of a member of the LAPD's SWAT team in its 41 years of existence.[25]
Radley Balko, an analyst for thelibertarianCato Institute, argued in his bookOverkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America that increased SWAT raids have madeno-knock raids, and danger to innocents and suspects, far greater.[26] Another study,Warrior Cops: The Ominous Growth of Paramilitarism in American Police Departments by Diane Cecilia Weber, also of the Cato Institute, raised concern about the increasing use of SWAT teams for ordinary policing tasks.[27]
The relative infrequency of SWAT call-outs means these expensively trained and equipped officers cannot be left to sit around, waiting for an emergency. In many departments the officers are normally deployed to regular duties, but are available for SWAT calls via pagers, mobile phones, or radio transceivers. Even in larger police agencies, SWAT personnel will normally be seen in crime suppression roles—specialized and more dangerous than regular patrol, but the officers would not be carrying their distinctive armor and weapons.
Since officers have to be on call-out most of the day, they may be assigned to regular patrol duties. To decrease response times to situations that require a SWAT team, it is now a common practice to place SWAT equipment and weaponry in secured lockers in the trunks of specializedpolice cruisers instead of forcing officers to travel to gather their equipment or only use a single dedicated SWAT vehicle.
By illustration, the LAPD's website shows that in 2003, their SWAT units were activated 255 times for 133 SWAT calls and 122 times to serve high-risk warrants.[28] TheNYPD'sEmergency Service Unit is one of the few police special-response units that operate autonomously 24 hours a day. However, this unit also provides a wide range of services in addition to SWAT functions, including search and rescue, and car accident vehicle extrication, normally handled byfire departments or other agencies.
The need to summon widely dispersed personnel, then equip and brief them, makes for a long lag between the initial emergency and actual SWAT deployment on the ground. The problems of delayed police response at Columbine led to changes in police response,[29] mainly rapid deployment of line officers to deal with an active shooter, rather than setting up a perimeter and waiting for SWAT to arrive.
SWAT teams use equipment designed for a variety of specialist situations includingclose-quarters combat (CQC) in an urban environment. The particular pieces of equipment vary from unit to unit, but there are some consistent trends in what they wear and use.[30] Much of their equipment is indistinguishable from that supplied to the military, not least because much of it ismilitary surplus.[31][32]
SWAT personnel wear similar uniforms to those worn by military personnel. Traditional SWAT uniforms are usually solid tones of dark blue, black, grey, tan, or olive green, though uniforms withmilitary camouflage have become popular with some SWAT units since the 2000s.[33]
Early SWAT units were equipped with a variety of headgear such asM1 helmets,motorcycle helmets,bump helmets, or even softpatrol caps.[34] Modern SWAT units use helmets similar to those issued by the U.S. military, such as thePASGT helmet orFuture Assault Shell Technology helmet, though they may also useriot helmets or soft headgear such ascaps.Balaclavas andgoggles are often used to protect the face and protect the identities of team members.[34][35]Ballistic vests, sometimes including rigid plate inserts, are standard-issue.[35] These vests are labelled with "POLICE", "SHERIFF", "SWAT", or similar, to allow for easy identification.[36]
SWAT units are equipped with special weapons that are not normally used by regular police units, typically military firearms such asassault rifles,submachine guns,riot shotguns,sniper rifles,riot control agents,smoke grenades,stun grenades, andstinger grenades.[37][38][39][40][41] Though these armaments make SWAT teams resemble militaryinfantrysquads, they are still law enforcement units tasked witharrest, and are thus often also equipped withless-lethal weapons such astasers,pepper spray,pepperballs,baton rounds,bean bag rounds, andrubber bullets to incapacitate suspects. Many SWAT units also have access to specialized equipment such asballistic shields,entry tools,battering rams,armored vehicles,thermal andnight-vision devices,fiberscope cameras, andmotion detectors.[42]
Canine units may also be incorporated within SWAT teams, or may be used on anad hoc basis.[43]
SWAT units often employ SWAT vehicles, also called "armored rescue vehicles" (ARV),[44] for insertion, maneuvering, and during operations such as the rescue of personnel and civilians who may be in danger of receiving fire from suspects if extracted through other methods.[45][46] Common armored SWAT vehicles include theLenco BearCat, Lenco BEAR,BAE Caiman,Cadillac Gage Ranger,Cadillac Gage Commando, and similar vehicles.[47][48][49][50][51] Some departments use decommissioned, disarmed military vehicles acquired from theLaw Enforcement Support Office. Alternatively, SWAT teams may useunmarked police cars to respond faster, provide better mobility when splitting up, or avoid detection.
Police aircraft, commonlyhelicopters, are used to provide aerial reconnaissance or insertion viarappelling orfast-roping.
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