Introduction

The Orange County Sheriff's Office began the development of the S.W.A.T. Team progam in 1974 with five deputies.  The team was formulated in response to the increase in violent crimes and the greater sophistication of the criminal element, on the national level.  As the criminals became armed with greater firepower and variety of weapons, an immediate response by local law enforcement was required.

Definition

The acronymn S.W.A.T. stands for Special Weapons And Tactics. Many teams in recent years have moved away from this title, because of what they see as a negative connotation attached to this term.  Some now call themselves Special Response Team (S.R.T.) or Emergence Response Team (E.R.T.).  Our team goal was orignated with the title of S.W.A.T. and we have chosen to remain with this name.

Misconceptions

Numerous misconceptions exist around S.W.A.T. philospohy.  One of the primary misconceptions is that when S.W.A.T. responds to an incident, the use of deadly force is eminent or at least highly likely.  This misconception was refuted in a study conducted by the National Tactical Officers Association (N.T.O.A.)which revealed that agencies with S.W.A.T. Teams actually had less incidents of the use of deadly force than agencies without this capability.  Once of the reasons for this is the increased variety of special equipment and tools available to S.W.A.T., which allow the resolution of high risk scenarios without the use of lethal force.

The definition of what determines a successful mission is another popular misconception.  If the suspect/subject is taken into custody without injury and there are no injuries to innocent citizens or our deputies, then we feel this mission was successful.  Unlike Hollywood's depiction of S.W.A.T., almost all of our call-outs are resolved without any shots being fired.  Unfortunately, we have been involoved in scenarios where the suspects actions have made this outcome impossible.  But ultimately, the suspect's decisions and illicit actions determine the final outcome.  We train for all eventualities, but always focus our efforts on a peaceful resolution.

Training

Our team trains for ten hours every other week.  The counter-snipers train for ten hours on the alternating weeks.  In addition to this, the team travels annually to Camp Blanding for a forty hour training session.