Editing SWAT (section)

== Organization ==
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[[File:SWAT team approaches building at Fort Hood 2009-11-05.JPG|thumb|left|[[United States Department of Defense|DoD]] SWAT officers responding to the [[2009 Fort Hood shooting]] in Texas]]
The relative infrequency of SWAT call-outs means these expensively trained and equipped officers cannot be left to sit around, waiting for an emergency. In many departments the officers are normally deployed to regular duties, but are available for SWAT calls via pagers, mobile phones, or radio transceivers. Even in larger police agencies, SWAT personnel will normally be seen in crime suppression roles—specialized and more dangerous than regular patrol, but the officers would not be carrying their distinctive armor and weapons.

Since officers have to be on call-out most of the day, they may be assigned to regular patrol duties. To decrease response times to situations that require a SWAT team, it is now a common practice to place SWAT equipment and weaponry in secured lockers in the trunks of specialized [[Police car|police cruisers]] instead of forcing officers to travel to gather their equipment or only use a single dedicated SWAT vehicle.

By illustration, the LAPD's website shows that in 2003, their SWAT units were activated 255 times for 133 SWAT calls and 122 times to serve high-risk warrants.<ref>{{cite web
| url        = http://www.lapdonline.org/metropolitan_division/content_basic_view/850
| title      = official website of The Los Angeles Police Department
| publisher  = Lapdonline.org
| access-date = June 5, 2009
}}</ref> The [[New York City Police Department|NYPD]]'s [[New York City Police Department Emergency Service Unit|Emergency Service Unit]] is one of the few police special-response units that operate autonomously 24 hours a day. However, this unit also provides a wide range of services in addition to SWAT functions, including search and rescue, and car accident vehicle extrication, normally handled by [[fire department]]s or other agencies.

The need to summon widely dispersed personnel, then equip and brief them, makes for a long lag between the initial emergency and actual SWAT deployment on the ground. The problems of delayed police response at Columbine led to changes in police response,<ref>{{cite web
| author     = CSMonitor.com<!--Last Update: 9:22&nbsp;am ET-->
| url        = http://www.csmonitor.com/2000/0531/p2s2.html
| title      = Change in tactics: Police trade talk for rapid response
| work       = The Christian Science Monitor
| date       = May 31, 2000
| access-date = June 5, 2009
}}</ref> mainly rapid deployment of line officers to deal with an active shooter, rather than setting up a perimeter and waiting for SWAT to arrive.