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(More customer reviews)I was hoping SWAT Madness, and the Militarization of the American Police, was going to be an objective, even-handed examination of SWAT operations and teams in the U.S. After all, there are issues in need of discussion. It is not. Instead, author Jim Fisher offers up a slanted, very poorly researched, histrionic screed.
I spent 25 years of my police career on SWAT. I have been seriously involved in training teams, specifically snipers, on a national level for nearly 20 years. Many of the assertions Miller makes about training are just wrong. He instantly lost credibility with me when on Page 31, he states, "Although police snipers are trained at a few big-city police academies and a handful of private schools run by former special forces personnel, most are trained at the U.S. Army base at Fort Benning, Georgia." As President of the American Sniper Association, a former sniper, and a current trainer, I can say with certainty that entire statement is wrong. According to Miller, "About half of the nation's SWAT officers are trained by active-duty commandos from Navy Seal and Army Ranger units" Really?
I don't know what he did in the FBI, but his lack of knowledge about firearms borders on embarrassing. But considering he is writing as an authority on special operations, it further undermines his credibility. When he refers to a 9mm handgun as a high caliber weapon, he comes across like someone who learned his ballistics from watching television. He calls the M&P 15's "the .223 caliber, 30 round, version of the military's M-16." No, it isn't.
The tone in some parts is so hysterical, they should be written in all caps. He devotes a chapter to complaints about patrol officers and their use of Tasers. He also highlights bad traffic stops and calls for service. What this has to do with SWAT is a mystery.
He trots out statistics designed to support his arguments, but doesn't clarify where the numbers are coming from. And some of those numbers just don't make sense. For instance, he claims there are 3,500 SWAT teams in the US. Not according to the Department of Justice. He also claims that over a 16 year period of a survey, SWAT teams averaged 40,000 missions a year. This includes warrant services. I'm not sure of how accurate that number is either, but go with me. This works out to 640,000 SWAT missions nationwide during that period, which works out to a little over 11 deployments per team, per year. Knowing many larger teams have an operational tempo much higher than that, means smaller teams are deploying a lot less. The study allegedly highlights 319 "botched" raids during that timeframe. That number works out to about one "botched raid" for every 2000 successful callouts. So where is the problem?
The author has a bad habit of cherry-picking bad incidents which support his hysteria, while ignoring the thousands which demonstrate the professionalism and restraint displayed by SWAT teams on a regular basis. He uses the term "paramilitary" like a curse word, even though it is inaccurate, as SWAT teams don't view themselves as paramilitary units. He continually refers to SWAT members donning their "combat gear," which is a phrase we don't use. He also conflates every narcotic, patrol and detective search warrant service with SWAT team operations. They are not always the same. He desperately wants to assign the sins of a few to the reputation of the many. His prejudice clearly shows when he makes remarks like, "Why do you think the SWAT teams wear those ninja suits, cover their badges and wear executioner masks?"
Other examples of his fanatical approach to his subject are the incident reviews where he criticizes the use of SWAT on a particular warrant service, while dismissing details like two of the three people in the house had murder convictions or pending charges. This shows his complete lack of understanding of a threat matrix, and how it is used to determine whether SWAT is used on certain warrant services. There are so many more examples of what is wrong with this work, but I don't want to overwhelm anyone reading this review. If you are still curious, buy the book, but be warned.
Are there concerns with SWAT operations in the US? Yes, there are, but not nearly on the scale suggested in this and other publications like it. And the corrective action is more and better training for all involved, from the administration level down to the operators. But people with Fisher's agenda don't see it that way. Just once, I would like to see an author remain objective, bring some credibility to the discussion, and offer up realistic solutions to make SWAT better and safer.
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