Perhaps someone can assist with the following exchange?
Email from "CH":
Email from "CH":
A friend of mine and I are having a debate about SWAT teams.
I believe they are almost completely unnecessary. He disagrees.
The sticking point about this is whether SWAT teams, or even the normal police, take fire from houses they serve warrants at. I've only been able to find one news story on Google that references the death of a SWAT officer, from LAPD (only fatality on their SWAT team in the 41 years it's been in existence according to the article.
Are my research skills merely poor or is being in SWAT as safe as I think it is? I am hoping you are more connected than I am about this stuff and have more information available to you.My reply:
I'm not aware of anyone who has compiled the SWAT-exclusive statistics you are looking for and presented it in a paper for peer review--particularly with context of what prompted the raid. You are correct about the LAPD fatality being a singular event.
You get a fair overview of deployments here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4803570.stm
But you also get different pictures depending on whether you consult
I'm not aware of anyone who has compiled the SWAT-exclusive statistics you are looking for and presented it in a paper for peer review--particularly with context of what prompted the raid. You are correct about the LAPD fatality being a singular event.Anybody?
You get a fair overview of deployments here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4803570.stm
But you also get different pictures depending on whether you consult Radley Balko or the NTOA, who offer the self-serving assertion that use of overwhelming force decreases the chance of fatalities because people don't dare resist. So their official position actually appears to support yours, that they don't encounter that much return fire--but it's almost a chicken and egg proposition.
Tell you what--let me do a post on this on WoG. I'll keep your name confidential and repro this exchange, and then ask people to offer insights on where we can find this info.