Posted on 9/28/2006, 4:33:58 PM by kiriath_jearim
**** The dynamic entry was scheduled to start off with a bang. More accurately a flash bang grenade that will be lobbed in a broken-out window - a "breach and bang" - of the house on Polk Street. Along the sides of the front door of the house, five men in olive green uniforms, loaded down with equipment and faces hidden behind black balaclavas and military style helmets wait for the signal to go. The military-style CAR-15s and Glock 22 pistols in their hands are loaded and chambered for any trouble. They communicate with hand signals to avoid making noise.
BANG!
As the stun grenade goes off, the men in position yell, "Go, go, go!" The first man in the line slams a pry bar into the sturdy-looking front door to gain entry. From inside a voice yells, "Get away from my house." The men are not swayed, almost ripping the door off its hinges within a few seconds. "Police, search warrant!!" is yelled. The occupant of the house, on the second floor, yells that he does not want to surrender, fearing he will be shot. The lead officer behind the mask talks to him and calms him down, eventually convincing the subject to surrender.
In a police Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) operation, speed, surprise and violence of action are required for the operation to be a success and to avoid injuries. To get all the elements requires practice, and that is what the Washington Police Department did Monday on a house scheduled for demolition. In each training maneuver, officers are given a different reality-based scenario to practice on.
Firefighter Bill Wagner had the task of playing the bad guy for the officers to hone their skills on. While SWAT training does require hands-on events that result in some bumps and bruises, Wagner was grinning from ear to ear every time he came away from the latest scenario. He walked away with a knot on his head, the result of a hit from the training "simunition" rounds, which fire from actual guns and deliver a paint round to mark a hit.
"It is more fun than anything," Wagner said. "I was laughing the last time they were coming through the door."
"It is fun," Chief Greg Goodman said from behind his black mask. His voice got serious as he described the need for Washington to have a tactical team. "In today's environment it seems there are situations you read about every day where something happens."
While the state police has its own tactical unit, Goodman says the team on any given day could be on the other side of the state, making a quick response time impossible.
The team is designed to respond to special instances which a normal officer might not be qualified to handle, such as narcotics search warrants, an active shooter call or any other situation where weapons are involved, and arrests of people known to be dangerous. Several members of the team have studied SWAT tactics with a former Army Delta Force commando. Others have attended basic SWAT school. All have been trained in such specialized tasks that they hope they will never have to use for real like sniper training, hostage negotiation and use of the combat shield.
While the officers are trained in SWAT operations, the city has no need for a full-time SWAT team that is always on alert until needed. Regular patrol officers are trained to use SWAT. Officers also say the extra training comes in handy in daily situations.
"A lot of times on patrol, you have to enter a house," Sgt. Shawn Ellingson said. "You learn to move tactically. It is safer for you and your partner."
On full-blown SWAT assignments, including training which happens once a month, officers wear about 70 pounds of gear, carrying everything from extra magazines to gas masks to medical equipment in their bulletproof tactical vests. After each scenario, the team takes time to analyze what they did and how they can do it better if it ever needs to be done for real. On Monday, one detail that popped up was how long it took to break out a side window.
I'm impressed. Look how effective a SWAT team was during the Columbine school massacre!
"It is more fun than anything," Wagner said. "I was laughing the last time they were coming through the door."
Armed and truly freakin dangerous. This s**t turns my stomach.
These morons think its a joke. "We're big, we're bad, and the fedgov says we can bust down your door and shoot you any time we like, and what's best? You gotta TAKE IT!!"
These people belong in jail.
When you have cowards on SWAT teams you get guys who freeze up and won't go in or you get innocent people shot as the cops shoot everything that might possibly be alive.
We are here to collect on your parking tickets!
Several members of the local swat team are no longer welcome at the local range because they lack basic safety skills. Sweeping the president of the club with the muzzle of a machine pistol, trigger on the finger, kinda had something to do with that.
well said
As I watched one of the pressers yesterday from Colorado, I found myself getting all verklempt over the black uniforms. I remember being taught that the policeman was my friend, taught our kids that (well, until circumstances revised our thinking).
I don't object to SWAT teams, I just want to know where the division is between being a cop and being military. The line is getting hard to find.Cops in ninja gear scare me. I guess if they show up in black, that means there's gonna be lots of bang bang going on? And when the local boys in brown show up, it's just to talk?
I understand the need for police agencies to have people trained in entries like this, I really do. But jeez, it seems to be getting to the point where every warrant now is being served by twenty guys in body armor piling out of something that looks like an old Soviet BTR-60. Is there really this much of an epidemic of the overuse of SWAT teams, or are they just being glamorized everywhere by reality TV?
}:-)4
Well, you know that if the city (county, whoever) gets the $$$ for their SWAT team, they just can't sit around and never use it. Consequences be d******.
In part its motivated by the desire for cops to further
their careers. SWAT is elite, therefore its desireable
for your resume.
Of course once they have the training and the gear, they
want to use it as often as possible.
They are SWAT teams in Washington, remember our 2004 stolen gubernatorial election? They are arriving to help make sure you fill out your all mail ballot for dims.
Oh, goody.
Wouldn't bother me quite as much if only the larger cities maintained one, and then only to be used on jihadists and such, not folks with unpaid parking tickets or smoking citations.
Yeah, it's always fun, until some innocent is killed, jerk. How much training are they doing to prevent the kind of errors that cause that, hmmm?
Now that they've got their own tactical unit, how long before they make their first wrong entry? In the People's Republik of Washington, that's going to be an expensive mistake.
And this isn't WA state. There is no city of Washington in Washington state. I believe this is Iowa, so you may want to ask the moderators to change that.
You think that's impressive, wait till ya see how they do it in Texas while Dims are in charge!
Sorta like the FBI version of SWAT, the HRT (Hostage rescue team)and their record number of hostages rescued.... zero.
Yeah, it's Washington, Iowa, as you can see if you go to the front page of the paper.
Like it or not, SWAT teams are needed in today's world. They put their lives on the line every time they do a dynamic entry into a building. Some people here may have trouble recognizing that, but if you need them, you will be glad to see them coming through the door to rescue you. Sure, they make mistakes now and then, like all human beings. Those mistakes are well publicized and used to train other teams so they don't do the same thing.
We had a case here in southwestern Ohio, five years ago, where a sheriff's SWAT team broke into a house on the basis of a tip from a "confidential informant" that a drug dealer lived there. Shot the dog, broke in both front and back doors, shot one of the occupants as he was coming down the stairs. The official story was that he looked like he had a gun. His family says he was carrying a coffee cup.
It turned out that the SWAT team was inadequately trained. It was disbanded after the raid. However, nothing ever happened to the creeps on the team. The county settled out of court for some undisclosed but large sum. The family is still unhappy. They wanted it to go to court, but couldn't afford it.
If someone broke down my door I think I'd be justified in bringing a gun to the party. But I'd look carefully before I came down the stairs.
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