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SWAT
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SWAT dutiesSWAT duties include:
- Hostage Rescue
- Crime Suppression
- Providing high-ground and perimeter security against snipers for visiting dignitaries;
- Providing superior assault firepower in certain situations, e.g., barricaded suspects.
- Rescuing officers and citizens captured or endangered by gunfire
- Destroying guerrilla or terrorist operations in U.S. cities.
- Resolve high-risk situations with a minimum loss of life, injury or property damage,
- Resolve situations involving barricaded subjects, (see specifically HBT)
- Stabilize situations involving high-risk suicidal subjects,
- Provide assistance on drug raids, arrest warrant and search warrant service,
- Provide additional security at special events,
- Stabilizing dangerous situations dealing with violent criminals (rapists, serial killers, gangs).
TrainingSWAT officers are selected from volunteers within their law enforcement organization. Depending on the department's policy, officers generally have to serve a minimum tenure within the department before being able to apply for a specialist section such as SWAT. This tenure requirement is based on the fact that SWAT officers are still law enforcement officers and must have a thorough knowledge of department policies and procedures.
SWAT applicants undergo rigorous selection and training, similar to the training some special operations units in the military receive. Applicants must pass stringent physical agility, written, oral, and psychological testing to ensure they are not only fit enough but also psychologically suited for tactical operations.
In addition, applicants must successfully pass a stringent background investigation and job performance review. Emphasis is placed on physical fitness so an officer will be able to withstand the rigors of tactical operations. After an officer has been selected, the potential member must undertake and pass numerous specialist courses that will make him or her a fully qualified SWAT operator. Officers are trained in marksmanship for the development of accurate shooting skills. Other training that could be given to potential members includes training in explosives, sniper-training, defensive tactics, first-aid, negotiation, handling K9 units, abseiling and roping techniques and the use of specialized weapons and equipment. They may also be trained specifically in the handling and use of special ammunition such as bean bags, flash bang grenades, tasers, and the use of crowd control methods, and special less-than-lethal munitions. Of primary importance is close-quarters defensive tactics training, as this will be the primary mission upon becoming a full-fledged SWAT officer.
SWAT equipmentSWAT teams use equipment designed for a variety of specialist situations including close 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.
Clothing and ToolsIndividual clothing and equipment usually consists of fire-resistant Nomex coveralls or jumpsuits, or BDUs, if need be, a body armor vest with Aramid or HMPE, an outer tactical load bearing vest (Omega style vest, LBV, or Plate Carrier [picture to right: Omega vests are being used]) for carrying ammunition and specialist gear and equipment, Nomex or other tactical gloves, balaclava or protective face covering (not always), protective eye goggles, Twaron/Kevlar helmet and/or gas mask, flashlight (usually a Surefire or similar brand), combat steel reinforced boots, flexi-cuffs, and thigh ammo/utility pouches and/or holsters. They often use drop leg holsters, while some officers prefer hip holsters.
Weapons While a wide variety of weapons is used by SWAT teams, the most common weapons include submachine guns, assault rifles, shotguns, and sniper rifles.
Tactical aids include K9 Units, flash bang, Stinger and tear gas grenades.
Semi-automatic handguns are the most popular sidearms. Examples may include, but are not limited to: M1911 pistol series, Sig Sauer series (especially the Sig P226 and Sig P229) Beretta M9 series, Glock pistols, and H&K USP series.
Popular submachine guns used by SWAT teams include the 9 mm Heckler & Koch MP5 and 10 mm MP5/10 (used by the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team and by United States Capitol Police), with or without suppressors. The H&K UMP has begun to replace the MP5 due to its lower cost and larger caliber, though albeit at the cost of a somewhat shorter effective range and more recoil.
Common types of shotguns used are the Benelli M3, SPAS-12, Remington 870 and 1100, Mossberg 500 and 590.
Common rifles include carbines such as the Colt CAR-15 and M4, H&K G36C and the Heckler & Koch 416. While affording teams increased penetration at the cost of accuracy, for dealing with well-protected criminals, the compact size of these weapons is essential as SWAT units frequently operate in CQB environments. The Colt M16A2 can be found used by Marksmen or SWAT officers when a longer ranged weapon is needed. The Heckler & Koch G3 series is also common among Marksmen or snipers, as well as the M14 rifle. Many different variants of bolt action rifles are used by SWAT, with a few occasions of the usage of a .50 caliber sniper rifle.
To breach doors quickly, battering rams, shotguns, or explosive charges can be used to break the lock or hinges, or even demolish the door frame itself. SWAT teams also use many less-lethal munitions and weapons. These include tasers, pepper spray canisters, shotguns loaded with bean bag rounds, and Pepper ball guns. Pepper ball guns are essentially paint ball markers loaded with balls containing Oleoresin Capsicum ("pepper spray").
VehiclesWell-funded SWAT units may also employ ARV's, (Armored Rescue Vehicle ) for insertion, maneuvering, or during tactical operations such as the rescue of civilians/officers pinned down by gunfire. Helicopters may be used to provide aerial reconnaissance or even insertion via rappelling or fast-roping. To avoid detection by suspects during insertion in urban environments, SWAT units may also use modified buses, vans, trucks, or other seemingly normal vehicles.
Units such as the Ohio State Highway Patrol's Special Response Team (SRT) used a vehicle called a BEAR which is a very large armored vehicle with a ladder on top to make entry into the second and third floors of buildings.
The Tulsa Police Department's SOT (Special Operations Team) uses an Alvis Saracen, a British-built armoured personnel carrier. The Saracen was modified to accommodate the needs of the SOT. A Night Sun was mounted on top and a ram was mounted to the front. The Saracen has been used from warrant service to emergency response. It has enabled team members to move from one point to another safely.
ReconFor tactical reconnaissance purposes, a team may be equipped with binoculars, fiber optic cameras (known by brand names such as the Viper, as used by the Los Angeles Police Department), thermographic cameras, or a variety of audio or video surveillance equipment. In nighttime or low-light operations, SWAT units may be equipped with night-vision goggles. Mirrors on extension poles, for looking around corners while not putting an officer directly in the line of fire, are among some of the more unusual and ad-hoc devices used by teams to deal with unique situations.
SWAT in popular cultureThis kind of police unit quickly became well known with the premiere of the short-lived television series S.W.A.T. in the 1970s, which was panned as being overly violent and unrealistic with the characters regularly undergoing missions that usually happen only once in a lifetime for actual teams. However, the violence is mild by today's standards. In 2003, the movie S.W.A.T. starring Samuel L. Jackson and Colin Farrell was released in theaters as an update of the TV series.
The SWAT Series of computer games by Sierra Entertainment and developed by Vivendi Universal and Irrational Games started off as an interactive movie follow up of the Police Quest series which was narrated by retired Chief Daryl Gates, and was continued as a real-time strategy game and two first person shooters in the vein of Rainbow Six. All but one featured endorsements by the LAPD.
In 2005, a television show debuted on A&E entitled Dallas SWAT, documenting the personal and professional lives of SWAT officers of the Dallas, Texas Police Department. The television show is now being shown on Court TV and in 2006 A&E debuted both Kansas and Detroit SWAT.
Up to and including the 1980s, movies that featured SWAT units (such as Die Hard and Die Hard 2) portrayed them as carrying M16 rifles and wearing black armour and clothing but not wearing protective helmets. By the mid to late-1990s, SWAT officers were typically depicted in full protection with helmets and goggles/visors, balaclavas, and carrying MP5 submachine guns, with the occasional member carrying a rifle/carbine or shotgun (such as in Face/Off).
Such police units have also been parodied. During the 1990s, there was also a cartoon TV show called . The British comic Viz once ran a spoof strip called SWANT (Special Weapons And No Tactics) involving a disastrous SWAT team. A SWAT unit is featured at the end of the movie The Blues Brothers (1980), along with state troopers, the military, the fire brigade, the mounted police, the Chicago Police Department, etc. They chase Jake and Elwood Blues in the Cook County Building, leading the pursuit by all the law enforcement officials throughout the building stairwells. The obvious irony of the whole sequence is that one of the missions of the SWAT teams is to arrest heavily armed, dangerous, criminals while the Blues brothers are unarmed and are only petty criminal offenders.
Controversies The use of SWAT teams in non-emergency situations has been criticized. In 2006, a SWAT team served a warrant on Salvatore Culosi, a 37-year old optometrist in the Fair Oaks section of Fairfax County, Virginia, a suburb of Washington D.C., who was accused of sports gambling; the attempted arrest ended with his accidental death. The officer who was responsible, Deval V. Bullock, was suspended for three weeks without pay. One notable critic is Radley Balko, a policy analyst at the Cato Institute, author of Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America.
SWAT and other units in the United States Though initially confined to metropolitan cities, today virtually every city with a police force in excess of a handful of officers has a paramilitary tactical unit. A variety of abbreviations and acronyms are used for these organizations, which operate at federal, state, and local levels. Most known examples are:
Similar units outside the United StatesOther law enforcement agencies, both in the US and around the world, also have similar paramilitary units. However, SWAT usually refers to tactical units attached at the municipal level. The term "special weapons and tactics" unit has also become somewhat generic, and sometimes includes some patrol officers trained and equipped to respond to violent threats.
- ESI, Belgium
- SIPA, Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Gendarmery, Bulgaria
- Útvar rychlého nasazení (URNA), Czech republic
- K-Commando, Estonia
- Karhuryhmä, Readiness Unit of the Finnish Police, Finland
- Groupe d'Intervention de la Police Nationale (GIPN), intervention units operated by the Direction Centrale de la Sécurité Publique ("Central Directorate of Public Security", DCSP), similar to the RAID team (which is directly under orders of the Direction Générale de la Police Nationale), France
- Recherche Assistance Intervention Dissuasion, French National Police, France
- Spezialeinsatzkommando, Grenzschutzgruppe 9, Bundespolizei, Germany (it is similar to FBI HRT)
- Terrorelhárító Szolgálat, Készenléti Rendorség (TESZ), Hungary
- Víkingasveitin, Viking Squad, Iceland
- Gruppo di Intervento Speciale (GIS), Carabinieri, Italy
- Nucleo Operativo Centrale di Sicurezza (NOCS), Polizia di Stato, Italy
- Samodzielny Pododdzial Antyterrorystyczny Policji, Poland
- Grupo de Operaçőes Especiais (GOE), part of Polícia de Segurança Pública (PSP), Portugal
- Companhia de Operaçőes Especiais (COE), part of Guarda Nacional Republicana (GNR), Portugal
- SOBR, Ministry of the Interior (MVD), Russia
- OMON, Ministry of the Interior (MVD), Russia
- SAJ (Special Anti-terrorist Unit), Ministry of the Interior (MUP), Serbia
- PTJ (Anti-Terrorist Unit), Ministry of the Interior (MUP), Serbia
- Útvar osobitného urcenia (ÚOU) of Ministry of Interior, Slovakia
- Pohotovostné policajné útvary (PPÚ) of Ministry of Interior, Slovakia
- Odbor špeciálnej ochrany Úradu pre ochranu ústavných cinitelov a diplomatických misií of Ministry of Interior, Slovakia
- Zásahová skupina Úradu boja proti organizovanej kriminalite of Ministry of Interior, Slovakia
- Jednotka služobných zákrokov Colného kriminálneho úradu Colnej správy of Ministry of Finance, Slovakia
- Zásahová jednotka Špeciálnej zásahovej skupiny Zboru väzenskej a Justicnej Stráže of Ministry of Justice, Slovakia
- Národná protidrogová jednotka, Slovakia
- Grupo especial de operaciones (G.E.O.), Spain
- Aras, Lithuania
- Groupe Special d'Intervention de la Gendarmerie Royale (GSIGR), Morocco
- Special Ranger Group (SRG) component of the National Security Guards, India
- Detachment 88, Republic of Indonesian Police (POLRI), Indonesia
- Pasukan Gerakan Khas (PGK) and Police Combat Diving Unit (UST), Royal Malaysian Police, Malaysia
- Tactical Assault Group, Australia
- Armed Offenders Squad and Special Tactics Group, New Zealand Police, New Zealand
- SDU, Hong Kong
- SWAT, People's Republic of China (PRC)
- Special Action Force, Philippines
- Thunder Squad, Taiwan National Police, Republic of China (Taiwan)
- Arintharat 26, Royal Thai Police, Thailand
- State Protection Group, New South Wales Police Force, Australia
- Police Intervention Tactical Unit, Macau Police
North AmericasCanada
See also
External links - The National Tactical Officers Association, a national organization of tactical professionals.
- The International Tactical Officers Training Association, an organization of tactical professionals more recently established than the NTOA.
- Court TV program that broadcasts real SWAT video.
- Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America
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