{"id":12862,"date":"2016-05-04T08:21:51","date_gmt":"2016-05-04T16:21:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/?post_type=blog&p=12862"},"modified":"2023-10-24T11:00:59","modified_gmt":"2023-10-24T18:00:59","slug":"the-evolution-of-swat-team-equipment-from-wwii-rifles-to-bearcats","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/blog\/the-evolution-of-swat-team-equipment-from-wwii-rifles-to-bearcats\/","title":{"rendered":"The Evolution of SWAT Team Equipment: From WWII Rifles to BearCats"},"content":{"rendered":"

When former Davis County Sheriff William “Dub” Lawrence, the subject of the\u00a0Independent Lens<\/em> film\u00a0Peace Officer<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, established one of Utah’s first\u00a0SWAT teams in 1975 he initially required a four-officer unit, but he could only find\u00a0three men in his department who met the physical fitness requirements. Forty years later\u00a0the Davis County SWAT Team has 22 officers and averages over 60 operations a year, most of them\u00a0no-knock search warrants.<\/p>\n

As we witness\u00a0in Peace Officer,\u00a0<\/em>the use\u00a0of SWAT has increased exponentially\u00a0\u2014 often to serve no-knock search warrants \u2014 with\u00a0the prosecution\u00a0of the War on Drugs. The rise\u00a0of SWAT operations have\u00a0brought an evolution in SWAT weapons and vehicles, much of them\u00a0handed down from\u00a0the U.S. military via the controversial “1033 program.” Below we take a non-comprehensive look at how some equipment\u00a0has changed since\u00a0SWAT teams emerged in the 1960s.<\/p>\n

Primary Weapon<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the early days of SWAT, when Chief Daryl Gates\u00a0first added\u00a0the paramilitary outfit to the LAPD as a response to the 1965 Watts Riots, operations were surprisingly loose. “There was no budget for weapons and equipment, so members were required to bring their own,” Matthew Fleischer reported in the April 2011 issue of the Los Angeles Times Magazine<\/em>*. One officer “had an M-1 carbine he had ordered through the mail.” The M1, one of the U.S. military’s standard rifles during World War II, is a lightweight .30 caliber semi-automatic fed by\u00a015- or 30-round detachable\u00a0box magazines.<\/p>\n

Within a few years, SWAT teams began arming themselves\u00a0with\u00a0the same enhanced firepower American troops carried into combat\u00a0in\u00a0Vietnam. The M16A1 assault rifle, capable of firing\u00a0650 – 750 rounds per minute, appeared during the first high-profile SWAT operation, when 200\u00a0LAPD officers surrounded the\u00a0Southern California Headquarters of the Black Panther Party and engaged its armed occupants in a four hour shootout. Miraculously, no one was killed in the mayhem.<\/p>\n

Descendents\u00a0of the M16 remain law enforcement’s rifles of choice. In 2011, the Center for Investigative Reporting visited the annual\u00a0International Association of Chiefs of Police\u00a0and discovered that Colt’s M4 \u2014 “closest to what the military uses” \u2014 was the preferred assault rifle among cops. The M4\u00a0is smaller and lighter than its Vietnam War predecessor,\u00a0and capable of firing 950 rounds per minute. In\u00a0September of this year,\u00a0the M4 will become\u00a0the primary personal weapon of the\u00a0U.S. Marine Corps.<\/p>\n