SWAT Team

SWAT Team

Introduction

Special Weapons and Tactics unit, popularly called as SWAT team, is a special group of police department trained to specialize in dealing with extraordinarily dangerous or violent circumstances. These units are usually deployed in very critical operations, such as rescue operations where hostages are being detained, or heavily armed militants are to be captured. Various police departments have their own SWAT units to be enforced whenever required.

Discussion

History

The concept of SWAT first evolved in 1960s in the Los Angles, United States. The incidents like the Watts Riots and many heave in domestic terrorism and sniper attacks lead towards the formation of a highly skilled and tactic unit of SWAT. The targets of these attacks were usually the officials of police department. There was a heavy escalation in violence in the United States, and even the officials of the law enforcement agencies had insecure feelings.

The first SWAT team was established in the LAPD (Los Angeles Police Department) in 1968 by Inspector Daryl Gates. John Nelson, a then Los Angeles police officer, discusses with Inspector Darryl Gates the need and idea of formulating a highly skilled special police unit to tackle the high-risk situations. Inspector Darryl Gates officially approved this idea. As a result, fifteen divisions each of four men were formed, called as Platoon D (www.co.mchenry.il.us).

Recruitment in SWAT

The recruitment for SWAT teams is done form the volunteers of the respective police departments. One should be a police officer in their respective department with an outstanding performance record and at least 3 years experience. The police officers volunteer themselves for a position in the SWAT team. The volunteers are ten required to successfully go through a variety of examinations in which there physical fitness and endurance is evaluated. The different processes of this test include timed runs, darts, pushups, chin-ups, pull-ups, and ...