Editing SWAT (section)

=== Post-9/11 and the War on Terror ===
According to criminal justice professor Cyndi Banks, the [[War on Terror]], like the War on Drugs, became the context of a significant expansion of SWAT policing.<ref name="banks">{{cite book
| last1     = Banks
| first1    = Cyndi
| title     = Criminal Justice Ethics: Theory and Practice
| date      = 2016
| publisher = SAGE Publications
| isbn      = 978-1-5063-2604-7
}}</ref> Whereas some have attributed this expansion to "mission creep" and the [[militarization of police]], other scholars argue that increased SWAT policing is a response to real or perceived [[moral panic]]s associated with fear of crime and terrorism. Banks writes that SWAT team employment of military veterans has influenced their tactics and perspective.<ref name="banks" />{{rp|33–39}}

Countering the view that post-9/11 SWAT policing represents the militarization of police forces, scholar den Heyer writes that SWAT policing is part of a natural progression towards police professionalization. Den Heyer also argues that while SWAT teams continue to be deployed to execute large numbers of drug warrants, this is a rational use of available police resources.<ref name="banks" />{{rp|39}} Other defenders of SWAT deployments state that police have every reason to minimize risks to themselves during raids.<ref name="banks" />{{rp|39}}

By 2005, the number of yearly SWAT deployments in the United States had increased to 50,000,<ref name="lippman">{{cite book
| last1     = Lippman
| first1    = Matthew
| title     = Criminal Procedure
| date      = 2013
| publisher = SAGE
| isbn      = 978-1-4522-5814-0
}}</ref>{{rp|183–4}}<ref name="fisher">{{cite book
| last1     = Fisher
| first1    = James
| title     = SWAT Madness and the Militarization of the American Police: A National Dilemma
| date      = 2010
| publisher = ABC CLIO
| isbn      = 978-0-313-39191-0
}}</ref>{{rp|13–14}} most often to serve drug-related warrants in private homes.<ref name="banks" /><ref name="gaines">{{cite book
| last1     = Gaines
| first1    = Larry
| last2     = Miller
| first2    = Roger LeRoy
| title     = Criminal Justice in Action
| date      = 2016
| publisher = Cengage Learning
| isbn      = 978-1-305-85497-0
}}</ref>{{rp|205}} According to a study by the [[American Civil Liberties Union|ACLU]], just under 80% of SWAT deployments were used to serve arrest warrants.<ref name="stamper">{{cite book
| last1     = Stamper
| first1    = Norm
| title     = To Protect and Serve: How to Fix America's Police
| date      = 2016
| publisher = Nation Books
| isbn      = 978-1-56858-541-3
}}</ref>

Officers have cited safety as the main reason for use of SWAT teams, stating that SWAT units would frequently be called if there were a possibility a suspect might be armed. For instance, in 2006, only two police officers were killed in the arrest of 2 million drug suspects, a low casualty rate possibly stemming from the military equipment and tactics used in the raids.<ref name="fisher" />{{rp|13–14}}

On February 7, 2008, a siege and subsequent firefight with a shooter in the [[Winnetka, California|Winnetka]] neighborhood of Los Angeles led to the first line-of-duty death of a member of the LAPD's SWAT team in its 41 years of existence.<ref>{{cite news
| url         = http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-fivedead9feb09,1,5439551.story?ctrack=1&cset=true
| title       = Siege in Winnetka, California
| newspaper   = Los Angeles Times
| date        = February 9, 2008
| access-date  = June 5, 2009
| url-status     = dead
| archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20090115134112/http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-fivedead9feb09,1,5439551.story?ctrack=1&cset=true
| archive-date = January 15, 2009
}}</ref>

[[Radley Balko]], an analyst for the [[Libertarianism|libertarian]] [[Cato Institute]], argued in his book ''Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America'' that increased SWAT raids have made [[No-knock warrant|no-knock raids]], and danger to innocents and suspects, far greater.<ref>Radley Balko, [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,193652,00.html "In Virginia, the Death Penalty for Gambling"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110615051217/http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,193652,00.html |date=June 15, 2011 }}, Fox News Channel, May 1, 2006</ref> Another study, ''Warrior Cops: The Ominous Growth of Paramilitarism in American Police Departments'' by Diane Cecilia Weber, also of the Cato Institute, raised concern about the increasing use of SWAT teams for ordinary policing tasks.<ref>{{cite web
| url        = http://www.cato.org/pubs/briefs/bp-050es.html
| title      = Warrior Cops The Ominous Growth of Paramilitarism in American Police Departments
| publisher  = Cato.org
| date       = August 26, 1999
| access-date = June 19, 2012
}}</ref>