Role of a SWAT Team
In a similar way to the military establishment having exclusive special forces trained to deal with special events, many countries have their police forces equipped with elite units which too take care of special events.
In the US the specialized police force is known as a SWAT team which is an acronym for special weapons and tactics. The first such team was put together in Los Angeles during the 1960’s as a highly trained rapid response team to handle emergencies.
The role of a SWAT team is to deal with situations for which the local police force is neither equipped nor trained to handle. The situations are normally well outside of the usual law enforcement role of the police officer. The SWAT team is commonly called upon to deal with hostage taking, the control of demonstrations which turn violent, and counter-terrorist activities.