International Herald Tribune June 18 Post U.S. Police Gird for 'War' Army Methods and Weapons Become the Goal By William Booth Washington Post Service FRESNO, CaliforniaSergeant Wade Engelson is preparing new recruits for war. Sporting fatigues and buzz hair cuts, the men are being trained in the use of submachine guns, explosives and chemical weapons. They have at their disposal a helicopter and will soon have an armored personnel carrier. But Sergeant Engelson's men are not U.S. Navy Seals or army Rangers. They are members of the Fresno Police Department, whose enemy will be found not in faraway lands but in these very streets, where police units patrol the neighborhoods fully armed and in urban camouflage. In their expanding strength and mission, the SWAT team in Fresno mirrors a trend in United States law enforcementthe rise in the number of police paramilitary units across the country and a rapid expansion of their activities, a trend that police scholars refer to as "the militarization" of civilian police. The explosive growth and expanding mission of SWAT teams has, in turn, led to complaints that they are too aggressive, too heavily armed, too scary and that they erode the public's perception of the police as public servants. "It's a very dangerous thing, when you're telling cops they're soldiers and there's an enemy out there," said Joseph McNamara, a former chief of police in San Jose and Kansas City who is now at the Hoover Institute at Stanford University. "I donit like it at all." In a new study, a police researcher, Peter Kraska, and his colleagues documented the growth of SWAT, which means Special Weapons and Tactics. In a nationwide survey of 690 law enforcement agencies serving cities with populations of 50,000 peopleor more, the researchers found that 90 percent now have active SWAT teams, compared with 60 percent in the early 1980s. Even in rural communities and smaller cities, the researchers have found that two of every three departments now have a SWAT teama situation Mr. Kraska likens to "militarizing Maybsry," the fictional small town in the Andy Griffith television show. Yet more important than the raw numbers, Mr. Kraska said, the SWAT mission has expanded. Once limited to highly specialized actions, such against barricaded gunmen or hostagetakers, the teams are now increasingly engaged in more standard police work. There is a boom in "highrisk warrant work, " including "noknock entries," he said. The work is mostly related to the war on drugs, and by extension, "gang suppression." "Where the SWAT teams were once deployed a few times a year, they are now used for all kinds of police workdozens of calls hundreds of calls a year," said Mr. Kraska, a professor of police studies at Western Kentucky University. "In SWAT units formed since 1980, their use has increased by 538 percent. " The 30 members of Fresno's Violent Crime Suppression Unit now patrol crimeridden neighborhoods day and night, serving warrants at homes of suspected drug dealers and criminals, stopping vehicles, interrogating gang members and showing a "presence." As they move through the city of 400,000 people, they wear subdued grayandblack urban camouflage and body armor. They have at the ready ballistic shields and helmets, M17 gas masks and rappelling gear. More equipment is carried m a mobile command bus that roves the city. Then there's that armored personnel carrier on order. The tactical police officers here also carry an assortment of weaponry denied the normal beat officerbattering rams, diversionary devices known as "flashbangs," chemical agents such as pepper spray and tear gas, and specialized guns, including assault rltles and, most tamously, the Fieclcler and Koch MP5, the short, highly accurate 9mm, fully automatic submachine gun. While the enormous rise in SWAT work has drawn some criticism, police officials said it has been necessary. In Fresno, Chief Ed Winchester said that a highly armed and more violent criminal class requires an extreme response. Fresno formed its SWAT team in 1973, about a decade after the first such unit appeared in Los Angeles. Creation of the Fresno unit came after an officer was shot and killed by a robbery suspect following a chaotic police response in which officers fired hundreds of rounds at the suspect, borrowed an ar nored car and used tear gas. "It was what we would call a fiasco," Chief Winchester said. He convinced everyone that a more highly trained, specialized and disciplined unit was required. From 1973 until 1994, Fresno's team Operated only in response to very specific catlouts, such as barricaded suspects. But by late 1994, Fresno was enduring a crime wave. There were 55 shootings in five months, with 13 people killed, including three children. And so Fresno's traditional SWAT unit transformed itself into the Violent Crime Suppression Unit and took to the streets in constant patrols. "The criminals aren't stupid," Chief Winchester said. "They see eight guys surrounding them, all carrying submachine guns and wearing black fatigues, they don 't want to get killed."