If I were to ask you, “What sets the members of a department’s SWAT team apart from members of a shift?” your answer would likely be, “Their training, equipment, fitness levels, skills, team coordination capabilities and problem-solving abilities.”
If I then asked, “Where is a SWAT team tested?” most of you would answer, “On the street” or “In the real world.”
For most teams, you would be right. However, some teams have chosen to test their capabilities in a challenging but much more forgiving environment than the real world. They have chosen to enter a SWAT challenge.
What is a SWAT challenge?
There are well-established SWAT challenges around the country, such as:
- The Connecticut SWAT Challenge, celebrating its 20th year.
- The Texas Tactical Police Officers Association SWAT Competition.
- The South Carolina SWAT Challenge at the Sawmill Training Center.
There is even an international competition for SWAT teams — the UAE SWAT Challenge — held in Dubai.
In these challenges, departments can enter teams of five to seven members to compete as a unit against other SWAT teams for trophies and, in some cases, cash prizes.
The competitions usually take place over four to five days. For the most part, they are “blind,” meaning your team will know the general skills being tested and that they will be tested as a team. However, they will not know the specifics of each challenge until shortly before the event.
Events may include weapons shoots, sniper capabilities, bus assaults, elaborate obstacle courses, fast roping, officer-down rescues, fitness challenges and real-world scenarios.
The value of SWAT challenges
Officers who join a SWAT team are usually competitive. Even though most train hard for the unknown challenges they face on the street, you will see an uptick in intensity and focus when they prepare to compete in a SWAT challenge.
Since it would be neither realistic nor wise to send your entire team out of town for a SWAT challenge, most teams choose a contingent of five to seven members to represent them. This creates an opportunity for team members to improve their fitness, tactical skills, and shooting scores with a tangible goal in mind.
There is much value in sending a contingent to a SWAT challenge. Here are a few benefits:
- Since street-transferable skills are tested in SWAT competitions, the benefits of hard training will pay off not only in the competition but inevitably on the streets.
- Even if the whole team can’t attend, they will benefit from the training required to prepare the chosen representatives.
- Once team representatives compete, regardless of how they place, their knowledge of cutting-edge SWAT tactics, equipment and training regimens will expand due to interactions with teams from across the country.
- The act of preparing to compete against the best SWAT teams will inevitably make your team better.
- This type of preparation and competition will better prepare members to operate under extreme stress in a controlled environment, increasing their efficiency in the unforgiving real world.
Note: If you have a dedicated team trainer, it is beneficial to send that person as well. For a SWAT trainer, attending a function like this is like drinking new training ideas from a fire hose.
Integrating SWAT challenges into training
There is nothing preventing a team’s trainer from incorporating SWAT challenges into regular training sessions. I found this approach worked well to enhance skills while allowing team members to engage in friendly, fun competition. At stake was always the “Highly Coveted Major Award,” which could be a free sandwich, a pizza, or, on occasion, a trophy. The team training was priceless, the sandwiches and pizzas were enjoyed, and the trophies were treasured.
Obstacles to attending SWAT challenges
While the benefits of SWAT challenges are clear, there are several logistical and administrative hurdles that teams must navigate before committing to participation:
Limited participation: Except for in-house SWAT challenges, the whole team can’t realistically attend a SWAT challenge. With limited training budgets, the costs may be prohibitive. Additionally, it would not be advisable for the entire team to be away for an entire business week, leaving your community unprotected by a SWAT presence.
Critics inside the agency: Your administration may be sensitive to internal critics who question the use of training funds on a SWAT competition because they fail to see it as valuable training.
Cynics outside the agency: There will always be anti-SWAT individuals who may loudly complain. One critic recently started a firestorm by writing about American police SWAT teams traveling to the international SWAT competition in Dubai. This critic argued that training alongside teams from countries with questionable human rights records was ill-advised, suggesting that American teams might adopt similar behaviors by associating with these foreign teams. Such is the mindset of cynics. I would propose that we consider the flip side of that coin. It is just as possible that freedom-loving American SWAT teams, who are the Constitutional rubber that meets the road in this great country of ours, could positively influence foreign team members to hunger for freedom in their own countries.
Conclusion
There is a danger of a team becoming complacent and stagnant when it has nothing to compare itself to. Conversely, a team that competes against demonstrably better teams at a SWAT competition will naturally strive to improve.
Finishing in second place in a SWAT competition will encourage your team to better prepare to prevail in future competitions — and, more importantly, in the real world, where there is no second place.
NEXT: Below is a list of some notable SWAT competitions, including details on their locations, frequency, application process and what each competition involves.
