Over the last several years, the number of missions carried out by the Las Vegas SWAT team has increased exponentially, from around 200 in 2001-2002 to around 500 already this year. The police spokesman in the article attributes the increase to the city’s increasing population.

Come on. That might account for a 10 or 15 or even 25 percent increase. But 500 percent? Might it be because the police department is increasingly using the SWAT team for more routine police work?

Apparently, the city is also on a record pace for officer-involved shootings this year.

This line is great:

Lieutenant Burns says in order to keep up with increasing missions the SWAT team is trying out new technology. They’ve purchased a robot with camera attached that can check out a barricaded home before SWAT officers physically enter.

He says it not only keeps his SWAT officers safe, but it saves time and the more time saved, the more time they have for missions.

Sorry, but your SWAT team shouldn’t be looking for more time to take on more missions. Are there really three violent crime episodes in Vegas every day?

Perhaps if the Vegas SWAT team weren’t so actively seeking out doors to break down, they might avoid embarassing mistakes. Like, for example, terrorizing an innocent man recovering from brain sugery.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 13th, 2006 at 5:34 pm by Radley Balko and is filed under Police Militarization. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.