Do small police agencies need redundant SWAT capacity? Budget crisis changing the debate

With the TV show Dallas SWAT, the Dallas PD's SWAT team gained national fame, but less attention has been paid to the fact that, according to Ed Timms at the Dallas News ("Dallas County constables, others keep little-used tactical units," Dec. 20):

Over the years, several law enforcement agencies in Dallas County have formed tactical teams, including municipal police departments, the Dallas County Sheriff's Department, the Dallas Independent School District's police force and local constables.

Typically the officers have duties in addition to serving on such teams.

One would expect the Dallas PD and even the Sheriff to have SWAT capacity. But in the past decade, many smaller agencies have gotten into the game - sort of an urban version of what Radley Balko calls "militarizing Mayberry." Timms runs through some of the lesser-known examples:

DISD's special response team of 14 officers was formed more than two years ago and outfitted with more than $40,000 in weapons and equipment. To date, it has not been used operationally.

Among Dallas County constables, Roma Skinner was the trendsetter. When his special response team was formed in 2001, it became the only such unit operated by a Dallas County constable. The Precinct 4 Web page says the unit has eight members, but training records indicate about a dozen are involved.

Three other constables have since formed tactical units of some kind: Precinct 2 Constable Michael Gothard, Precinct 3 Constable Ben Adamcik and Precinct 5 Constable Jaime Cortes.

The News requested documents detailing how often the Precinct 4 constable's Special Response Team has been used operationally since its inception. Skinner's office provided reports on 21 occasions in which the team was deployed from Aug. 7, 2001, through July 31, 2008. The team made arrests or confiscated weapons and drugs in several of the operations. In at least a third of the cases, no arrests were made.

The team frequently served drug-related warrants or raided homes where drug sales were suspected.

In a 2006 incident, the team raided a Dallas apartment looking for two men wanted on felony warrants and two other men suspected of armed robberies. Team members knocked open the front door with a ram as "flash-bangs" – pyrotechnic devices designed to distract suspects with a loud noise and a flash of light – were set off "into the front living room" and at a rear second-floor window.

No one was home. The team did find an AK-47 assault rifle in a closet. Before they left, "the weapon was returned to the closet and a copy of the search warrant was left on the living room table," according to the after-action report.

The Precinct 4 team also helped out U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 2007 after the wife of a man whom two ICE agents were seeking to arrest for deportation refused to let them into the house, in the Tarrant County portion of Grand Prairie.

After the team arrived, "We set up by the front door of the residence and knocked," according to an after-action report. The wife answered the door and "immediately we entered the residence." The man sought by ICE agents was not home, but the wife was arrested on misdemeanor warrants.

Other constables' tactical teams also appear to be deployed sparingly. Precinct 2's special response team, for example, executed four search warrants in 2008 and two in the first months of 2009.

There's no regulation of small agencies' SWAT teams, notes Timms: "The only mandatory standards for tactical teams typically are what law enforcement agencies impose on themselves." SWAT teams in small jurisdictions which are rarely used are a vanity-driven waste of staff and resources, particularly where larger agencies have redundant capacity.

For urban constables, this is just one more example of mission creep, seeking to take on jobs traditionally associated with municipal police in a self-serving effort to justify their otherwise anachronistic existence.

Reevaluating the SWAT craze among small agencies may be another area where dark budget clouds may have a silver lining for criminal justice reform, causing officials to raise questions based on fiscal concerns that never made their radar screens before as a public policy matter:

Across the nation, however, the wisdom of relatively small law enforcement agencies fielding tactical teams increasingly is being questioned. Some experts suggest that smaller departments don't have a sufficient pool from which to select ideal candidates, and may not have sufficient funds for training and equipment. Routine duties such as patrol and investigations may suffer in small departments where serving on a tactical team is a part-time duty.

Experts also warn that small teams, with perhaps six or 12 members, simply don't have the numbers to carry out high-risk operations such as hostage rescues or even barricaded-person incidents. Lacking sufficient numbers, they say, both the officers and citizens may be exposed to excessive risk.

Some critics also say that once such a team is formed, the temptation may be to use it – for practice or to justify its existence – when such an overpowering use of force isn't needed.

At a time when many government agencies are facing budget shortfalls, some officials question just how many tactical teams are necessary. Does every municipality and county law enforcement agency, regardless of size, need one? Or is there a better way?

Excellent questions. I recall a conversation some years ago when I was Police Accountability Project Director for the ACLU of Texas with an urban SWAT commander whose main pitch was his officers' professionalism (paraphrased): "We do this all the time," he said, "it's our job. We train and practice constantly and we're good at it. It's not like we pull a bunch of guys off traffic duty and stick assault rifles in their hands." But for smaller agencies like constables and the school district police, that's exactly what's going on. Such units are more expensive to equip and maintain than any other in the department, so if they're not getting used that's a big waste of resources that would be better spent elsewhere.

To the extent budget crises cause local officials to reevaluate redundant, superfluous SWAT spending, that's a welcome blessing. It should have happened before now, but better late than never.