Are police SWAT teams out of control?

In a new book that is getting lots of press Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America the author is trying to make a case that police SWAT teams have gotten out of control. What is the proof that these teams are so out of control? He has researched and found 300 different cases of SWAT teams botching calls.

A little back ground on SWAT teams. Popular history gives credit to the LAPD and chief Daryl Gates back in the 1970s for bringing in the modern SWAT team. Before that in the late 1950 and 1960 police did have riot control teams with special armor and defensive weapons. But SWAT was developed in response to police encountering criminals who were out gunning the Police. SWAT developed with armor and offensive weapons and tools. SWAT was first used only for hostage situations and armed standoffs. As time went by SWAT was being asked to serve search warrants on drug dealers who were becoming much more violent in defending their business.

The author cites 300 different incidents of SWAT teams botching calls. These items stem from breaking down the wrong door to killing people who may not have been as much of a threat as police thought. I agree that it is horrific that police have a warrant for house X but knock in the door at house Y. I will acknowledge that it is unacceptable that Police kill a person who was not a threat and about to kill a police officer. But 300 incidents in 30 years of SWAT teams does not seem like systemic loss of control.

Around here there is a warrant served close to every day. I am sure it is the same in most cities. That mean in the course of 30 years there have been hundreds of thousands of SWAT calls. 300 calls out of that many would mean a failure rate of less than .001%. I would saw this is a very low failure rate. A rate this low would not be a good measure of a nation wide problem of police and SWAT teams going out of control.

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