Do SWAT teams get paid to basically do nothing but train?

11 comments

1. lately it seems like they get paid to accidentally raid the wrong house, and do anything when they’re actually needed.

2. In a lot of departments, they’re just police officers who put on military garb and play army comando from time to time.

3. Often it’s volunteering police officers on or off duty that respond to major calls; hence why it’s not an instant response

4. It entirely depends on the size of the police/sheriff’s department and what their specific protocols are.

   Some SWAT officers are purely SWAT officers, some are regular officers with SWAT training, some are only activated for high risk missions and spend the rest of their time training, some serve dangerous warrants, some just do regular police work until their SWAT services are required.

   Then you have FBI SWAT who mostly just train all day and serve as a feeder division for FBI-HRT. But even that varies depending on how large their assigned branch office is and what their funding situation looks like.

5. In the ‘inner city’ I work in, the SWAT teams risk their lives every day, and are always going out on raids.

   I’m guessing some areas they pick their cuticles, and other areas of the country, they risk their lives, and in some areas, they kill people through poor training or an ‘accident.’

6. At least in the state of Texas and I imagine most states, regular officers go through SWAT qualification courses. When they become certified, they remain regular officers, but can be called in during a SWAT situation as a SWAT officer. Some cities have dedicated SWAT officers, but this is normally how it operates.

7. This explains it well:[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SWAT#Organization](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SWAT#Organization)

8. In a lot of police departments, being on SWAT is a secondary duty in addition to a regular police role. They spend most of their time as beat cops or detectives but they just have a bit of specialized training so they are the ones who grab the fancy gear when an incident occurs. A cousin of mine was SWAT for a while and when he wasn’t doing SWAT things he was a K9 officer.

9. Lol, SWAT handles a lot more than shootings.

   “The SWAT Team is called upon to respond for service of high-risk search and arrest warrants; incidents involving barricaded suspects, hostage rescues, or active shooters; crowd control; and other situations requiring resources beyond the capacity of the patrol division.”

   https://www.burbankpd.org/specialized-units/specialized-weapons-and-tactics-swat-team/

   This is just one department but they all will do the same task in different areas. SWAT also isn’t in every single corner of the country. It’s not like the police department which is in every town, but they are close enough to help areas that need it.

10. Our local swat team is made up of normal police officers that can be called into action when needed.

11. They also serve drug warrants and kill dogs