SWAT: IS IT BEING USED TOO MUCH?

ENN EMERGENCY SERVICES REPORTS-EmergencyNet News Service-Tuesday, July 15, 1997 Vol. 1 - 196

SWAT: IS IT BEING USED TOO MUCH?
By Steve Macko, ERRI Crime Analyst

There is a growing controversy within law enforcement circles about the increasing use of police Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) teams and how they should be employed. Surveys, that we will detail in this report, are showing that most of the work being done by SWAT teams today is not the traditional hostage-situations or barricaded subjects, but rather high-risk warrant work and street gang suppression.

Many people, mostly academics, argue that the increased use of these speciality units could erode the perception of the public as the police being public servants and more like an occupying army. ERRI analysts have looked at both sides of the argument and are unable to come to any conclusive determination. ERRI essentially feels that both sides of the controversy have valid and correct points.

On one hand, police are coming more and more in contact with heavily-armed individuals. Many subjects, such as street gang members and drug dealers, have automatic military-type weapons. Police officers need to counter that to protect themselves and the public.

On the other hand, the wearing of fatigues, buzz hair cuts, body armor and carrying H&K MP-5's on patrol will send a message to the criminal and the law-abiding citizen. Community relations and perceptions must be taken into account for a police force to be truly effective. A police department cannot afford to lose the confidence and cooperation of the community.

In this report, we will examine the Fresno, California, Police Department. Until 1994, Fresno had a traditional SWAT team that was only used for the traditional SWAT team responses. Today, the unit is called the Violent Crime Suppression Unit. In late 1994, Fresno experienced a crime wave. In the city of about 400,000 people, there were 55 shootings in five months that resulted in the death of 13 people, including three innocent children. That's when Fresno's SWAT team went into the streets on constant patrol.

The police chief credits the unit for partly reducing violent crime in Fresno by 8.7 percent in 1995 and 3.5 percent in 1996. Currently, the unit is only being used during night patrol. The program is planned to be expanded to daytime patrol. The Fresno Police Department also employs the use of a helicopter and will soon have an armored personnel carrier.

Fresno's SWAT team is by no means unique. In fact, it is said to only be mirroring what is a growing trend in United States law enforcement. Surveys indicate a rapid expansion of SWAT team activities.

There have been complaints that the officers used on street patrol in these speciality units are too aggressive, too heavily armed and too scary to the general public.

Joseph McNamara is the former police chief of San Jose and Kansas City. Today, he is part of the Hoover Institute at Stanford University. He said, "It's a very dangerous thing when you're telling cops they're soldiers and there's an enemy out there. I don't like it all."

Police researcher Peter Kraska, a professor of police studies at Western Kentucky University said that a new study has documented an explosive growth in police SWAT teams. In a nationwide survey of 690 law enforcement agencies serving cities with populations of 50,000 or more, it was found that 90 percent of the departments now have an active SWAT team. That is compared to 60 percent in the 1980s.

The survey also showed that even rural and small communities -- two out of three agencies -- have a SWAT team. Kraska calls this phenomena the "militarizing of Mayberry."

Accrding to Kraska, what's even more important than the actual number of teams is how their mission has been expanded. SWAT teams are said to be increasingly involved in more standard police work. The teams are now heavily involved in high risk warrant work -- mostly related to the war on drugs -- and by extension, they are also heavily into gang suppression.

Kraska said, "Where the SWAT teams were once deployed a few times a year, they are now used for all kinds of police work -- dozens of calls, hundreds of calls a year. In SWAT units formed since 1980, their use has increased by 538 percent." And as mentioned before, in the case of Fresno, are deployed as roaming patrols.

The Fresno Violent Crime Suppression Unit currently has 30 members. They patrol high-crime neighborhoods, serve warrants, stop vehicles, interrogate gangbangers and, essentially, show a presence -- which is very important in police work. The officers of the Fresno unit wear what is called subdued gray-and-black urban camouflage and body armor.

In Chicago, a unit of this type is called a tactical or a gang crimes unit. Officers in these units, make up the bulk of the Chicago Police Department Hostage-Barricade-Terrorism (HBT) team. Tactical officers, in Chicago, have always been known for their aggressiveness.

As mentioned before, the increased use of these teams is drawing some fire from law enforcement experts. Police officials defend the SWAT teams use as being necessary to help fight crime. Who is right and who is wrong? Both sides have convincing arguments.

Ed Winchester, the police chief of Fresno, defends his use of the SWAT team by saying that criminals are more heavily armed and more violent and these types of individuals require a more extreme response.

Winchester told the story of why Fresno even formed a SWAT team in 1973 to begin with. It was created after an officer was fatally shot by a robbery suspect following what he called a chaotic police response where Fresno officers fired hundreds of rounds at the suspect, even borrowed the use of an armored car and fired tear gas which, in turn, affected the people in the surrounding neighborhood.

The chief said, "It was what we would call a fiasco." It was at that time, the upper echelon of the department decided that a more highly-trained, specialized and disciplined unit was needed and it was patterned after the Los Angeles Police Department SWAT team, which had been in use for about ten years before 1973.

Fresno's SWAT team responded to only very specific incidents, such as barricaded subjects, from 1973 to 1994. Winchester said after he deployed the team to street patrol, "The criminals aren't stupid. They see eight guys surrounding them, all carrying automatic weapons and wearing black fatigues, they don't want to get killed."

In 1995, C.D. Smith, a member of the Fresno PD SWAT team, wrote in a police magazine: "The streets of Fresno have become a war zone for cops, who find themselves in the heat of battle with the bad guys at least once a month."

Winchester said about the use of his SWAT team, "Is there a downside? Sure there is. It's a sad commentary -- sad when crime is so bad you got to put a SWAT unit on the street."

Critics say that the growing use of paramilitary-style police units will threaten the idea of a civilian police force. It was thought that the growing trend was in "community policing," where beat officers on the street had more interaction with the community to encourage the population to work with the police to solve community problems as well as crime. To enlist the community to work with the police.

Stanford's McNamara said, "Despite the conventional wisdom that community policing is sweeping the nation, the exact opposite is happening. The police and their communities ought to think seriously about this. Is there a need for SWAT teams? Yes, for highly specialized functions. But the police love these units, and this is a disastrous image to project."

McNamara and other law enforcement experts believe that the positive impact of the SWAT teams in reducing crime is, at most, short-lived. That's because the pressure must always be maintained by these units. The greatest fear is that heavily-armed, commando-style police will eventually be seen and perceived as an occupying army.

Professor Kraska said, "The drug war created the atmosphere for this kind of pro-active policing. We have never seen this kind of policing, where SWAT teams routinely break through a door, subdue all the occupants and search the premises for drugs, cash and weapons."

Kraska's research showed that between 1980 and 1995, SWAT teams were employed 1.3 percent of the time in riot situations, 3.6 percent of the time in hostage-situations and 13.4 percent of the time for barricaded subjects. About 75 percent of their mission now is devoted to serve high- risk warrants, mostly in drug raids.

The practice is defended by police chiefs and SWAT officers by saying that gangs and drug dealers are using more powerful weapons and the warrant work should be done by highly-trained and armed officers. Chief Winchester said that because of their training, SWAT team officers actually fire fewer shots. He said, "They overwhelm suspects. They don't need to shoot."

Professor Kraska's survey also found out that many police SWAT teams are being instructed by active and retired U.S. military experts in special operations. They also receive training from the FBI, the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center and the National Tactical Officers Association.

They also receiving training from private companies. One of the more popular, private courses is offered by Heckler and Koch. The executive director of the National Tactical Officers Association is Larry Glick. He said that some of the private training seminars are taught by "retired military personnel who don't know what they're doing." He added that the training offered by Heckler and Koch is "very successful and credible, among the best." But it should be remembered that "their ultimate goal is to sell their guns."

Kraska and other law enforcement experts say that the new weaponry and paramilitary-style tactics being employed by SWAT units is attracting a different kind of officer -- less the cop as a social worker and more the cop as an elite special operations soldier.

It is ERRI's opinion that both types of officer are needed in today's world on the street. It will be up to the superiors of these officers to determine where and when to use both types of cops. There is probably room for both. But putting the wrong type of officer in the wrong type of situation will undoubtedly result in problems.

The ENN EMERGENCY SERVICES REPORT is a subscription publication of the EmergencyNet NEWS Service, which is a part of the Chicago-based Emergency Response and Research Institute. This publication specializes in Law Enforcement/Fire/EMS/Disaster and Medical Issues.

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