Also by Robert O'Brien

Last year—40 years after the creation of SWAT teams—the National Tactical Officers Association (NTOA) established the first-ever national SWAT standards. That's something that many SWAT practitioners and observers consider long overdue.

Dynamic entries depend on “surprise, shock, and speed” and you go to the suspects. With deliberate entries like “surround and callout” the suspects come to you. Knock and announce requirements vary for each jurisdiction and must be followed.

Remember Murphy's Law. Unexpected obstacles, dogs, darkness, etc., can throw off even the best-laid plans. Effective perimeters don't happen by accident. They require tactics, planning, and precision coordination.

Knowing the route is critical. Some years ago I participated in a major raid where the lead vehicle had trouble finding the target because they’d never seen it, and darkness obscured the address.

Preparation for searches and raids starts long before SWAT is ever requested. It begins with deciding which warrants service SWAT will do. Some teams handle all of their agency’s raids, while others only handle the highest risk. My guess is that the majority of SWAT teams fall somewhere in between.

It could be said that a raid is a raid and a search is a search. However, that would be entirely wrong. The raid and search techniques and tactics of patrol officers differ from those of detectives. And the techniques and tactics of SWAT raids and searches are substantially different from those of both patrol officers and detectives.

Arbitrary rotation has nothing to do with the job of SWAT itself. Instead, it’s about the—in my opinion, wrong—belief that staying too long in SWAT results in becoming “insular.”

Ballistic protection has a single purpose: keeping YOU alive and injury free so you can accomplish your mission. The way I feel about the protection vs. comfort issue is protection wins every time. Period.

The dangers of our profession range from the obvious—hostage rescue attempts and active shooters—to the hidden—vehicle crashes and physical training. And any one of them can happen to any of us at any time.