TEAM LEADERS AND MULTI-AGENCY TEAMS

Regional, multi-agency SWAT teams are the coming thing. They are an excellent answer to staffing shortages, limited resources and many other problems that face today's SWAT teams. However, while clearly the right answer, this is certainly not an easy answer.

The first major hurdle is to get

After the chiefs agree, the real work starts. Make no mistake! The differences in opinions and goals you may have seen at the chief (strategic) level continue down the ranks to the operator (tactical) level. They just take a different form. Failure to resolve these differences will be just as much of a showstopper as if the chiefs stopped the joint effort before it gets started.

These differences will occur between the team leaders from the former teams. And the differences will occur among the less-lethal operators, the breachers, the point operators, in fact, at virtually every skill and discipline level. In many ways, starting a SWAT team is easier than combining two or more established teams.

Among the first difficult decisions is, "Who is now charge?" I don't mean the team commanders; they come and go. Nor do I mean the incident commanders, who are different at almost every callout. I mean the entry team leader, the person on most teams who essentially runs the team and makes all the real decisions and formal recommendations.

Whether you are combining two teams or 10, there is only one slot for team leader. Expect some politicking and jockeying for position. Expect some bruised egos. Expect some less-than-professional reactions. Plan ahead for this by preparing some face-saving options. Be aware that some team leaders are actually looking for a way out. These options, of course, depend on team size.

One of the options for the various team leaders is a (sort of) lateral move to head the sniper element, negotiator group, perimeter detail or support element. Another option, and clearly not a lateral, is for these wise and veteran SWAT operators to simply join one of these groups. In fact, joining the negotiator team is a great option for the more senior among us.

Just like how some of the chiefs and sheriffs had to give up some strategic control to approve the formation of the new team, some of the former team leaders will have to give up some tactical control. Want to torpedo the team? Have two team leaders.

Once a single team leader position is settled, the glory of that job will quickly fade as the nowdaunting process of making one team out of many becomes even more apparent. It starts with policies and procedures. You know the drill. Collect the paperwork from all the agencies involved and come up with one set of policies and procedures for the multi-agency operation.

This involves more than cutting and pasting in Word. It involves absolutely critical decisions. What are the combined team's new standards for recruiting, selecting and dismissing? Do you want a certain minimum or maximum number from each agency?

Of course, you must do an assessment to find the inventory of skills and experience on the new team. Did you end up with all entry operators and no snipers? Or all snipers and entry, but no TEMS? Like all SWAT responses, keep the policies and procedures flexible enough to allow you to staff to fill gaps. You have five departments involved, and more than half come from one agency? So be it.

Next, the lucky team leader gets to establish fitness standards, firearm standards and training schedules. Because each of these was already established, the task will probably involve a "change" to some of these standards. One team used to run 5 miles at the start of every training day, while another team used to run 1 mile and then lift weights for an hour.

One team used to require a perfect score on one course of fire, while another team used to allow 85% proficiency on another course of fire. One team used to train for four hours, twice a month, while another team used to train for eight hours, once a month. Sort it out.

In the next issue, "We don't do it THAT way, we do it THIS way." Ugh.