History
The special weapons and tactics concept originated in
the late 1960s as a result of several sniping incidents
against civilians and police officers around the country.
Many of these incidents occurred in Los Angeles during
and after the Watts Riot. Upon critical examination
of how each incident was managed by police, the leadership
of the LAPD realized that an effective response to these
dangerous situations was virtually non-existent. Officer
John Nelson presented the special weapons and tactics
concept to a young inspector by the name of Darryl F.
Gates. Inspector Gates concurred and approved the concept
of a small group of highly disciplined officers utilizing
special weapons and tactics to cope with these unusual
and difficult attacks.
The first Special Weapons And Tactics (SWAT) Unit
consisted of 15 four-man teams. Members of each team,
who volunteered from the ranks of patrol and other
police assignments, had specialized experience and
prior military service. Each unit was activated for
monthly training or when the need for special weapons
personnel actually arose. These units, known as "station
defense teams," provided security for police
facilities during civil unrest.
In 1971, the SWAT personnel were assigned on a full-time
basis to Metropolitan Division to respond to continuing
action by subversive groups, the rising crime rate
and the continuing difficulty of mustering a team
response in a timely manner. Metropolitan Division,
which had a long-established reputation as the tactical
unit of the Department, was organized into "A",
"B" and "C" Platoons. The Special
Weapons And Tactics Unit was given the designation
of "D" Platoon, and at the same time formally
adopted the acronym SWAT.
Challenges
Faced by SWAT
The first challenge to these pioneers in the field of
special weapons and tactics came in 1969. On December
9th, search warrants for illegal weapons
were served at the Black Panther Headquarters at 41st
and Central Streets. The Black Panthers resisted and
attempted to shoot it out with 40 members of the SWAT
Team. In the ensuing four-hour siege, thousands of rounds
of ammunition were fired, resulting in the wounding
of three Panthers and three police officers. The Panthers
finally surrendered to SWAT officers, whose first mission
was now an indelible part of history.
On the afternoon of May 17, 1974, the SWAT Team took
on one of its most significant challenges. The Simbianese
Liberation Army (SLA), a group of heavily armed fugitive
terrorists, barricaded themselves in a residence on
East 54th Street at Compton Avenue. The event was
witnessed by millions via television and radio and
read about in the world press for days after. Appeals
to surrender were made to the barricaded suspects
on 26 separate occasions, 18 preceding the introduction
of tear gas, and 10 during the ensuing confrontation.
Not a single round was fired by police until their
initial appeals had been answered by repeated volleys
of semi-automatic and fully automatic gunfire. Despite
the firing of 3,772 rounds by the SLA, no uninvolved
citizens or police officers sustained injury from
gunfire. The fate of the suspects, however, was somewhat
different. During the gun battle, a fire erupted inside
the residence. The cause of the fire is officially
unknown, but it was speculated that an errant round
ignited one of the suspect’s molotov cocktails. All
six of the suspects suffered multiple gunshot wounds
and perished in the ensuing blaze.
In 1983, the Department sent three SWAT supervisors
to Europe to evaluate and develop the techniques employed
by military groups such as the German GSG-9, French
GIGN and the legendary British 22nd SAS. A rigorous
and difficult training program was implemented with
one objective -- to develop a true hostage rescue
capability within the LAPD SWAT Team.
The next major challenge for SWAT came in 1984. With
the Summer Olympic Games coming to Los Angeles and
terrorism proliferating around the world, Los Angeles
was a probable target. The leaders of the Department
and the SWAT Team again recognized a need and began
to work diligently to develop a skill that did not
yet exist within the LAPD SWAT Team or any other SWAT
Team throughout the nation.
Over 2,000 hours of training, per officer, was invested
in each operator in order to make this new concept
a reality. In the 19 days of the 1984 Summer Games,
SWAT officers worked a grueling 24 hours on and 24
hours off in a full-time training mode to polish those
skills. The Los Angeles Summer Games came and went
without an incident, but the counter-terrorism skills
developed during that time raised the team to a new
level.
Since the advent of the domestic hostage rescue skill,
the LAPD SWAT Team has rescued dozens of hostages
and currently handles approximately 80 barricaded
suspect incidents and 50 high-risk warrants a year.
