According to a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/042899colo-school-swat.html">N.Y. Times article,</a> the Colorado teams did exactly as they were trained. The trouble was that they'd never trained for a situation like this.
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>"This certainly will go down as the worst-case SWAT scenario of the century," said Larry Glick, executive director of the National Tactical Officers Association, which provides training for hundreds of police agencies. Ijames, who teaches SWAT tactics to officers from around the country, said one of the lessons of the Columbine shooting is that elite police units should be trained in new strategies.
"Surrounding a school may not be thebest thing to do," Ijames said. "The goal should be to take out the hostage-taker."
Watching what appeared to be a slow-motion response to a high school laden with explosives and under fire by two heavily-armed students, some police officers were openly critical of the SWAT response in Colorado.
Randy Patrick, a veteran officer from Westminster, a suburb of Denver, called the SWAT response "pathetic," and told the Denver Post, "I think they should have been more dynamic."[/quote]
Some harsh stuff, but I'm not so, how shall we say, disgusted, considering the SWAT teams were following their training. What else can one expect? More, different (better?) training seems to be on the table.
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>"This certainly will go down as the worst-case SWAT scenario of the century," said Larry Glick, executive director of the National Tactical Officers Association, which provides training for hundreds of police agencies. Ijames, who teaches SWAT tactics to officers from around the country, said one of the lessons of the Columbine shooting is that elite police units should be trained in new strategies.
"Surrounding a school may not be thebest thing to do," Ijames said. "The goal should be to take out the hostage-taker."
Watching what appeared to be a slow-motion response to a high school laden with explosives and under fire by two heavily-armed students, some police officers were openly critical of the SWAT response in Colorado.
Randy Patrick, a veteran officer from Westminster, a suburb of Denver, called the SWAT response "pathetic," and told the Denver Post, "I think they should have been more dynamic."[/quote]
Some harsh stuff, but I'm not so, how shall we say, disgusted, considering the SWAT teams were following their training. What else can one expect? More, different (better?) training seems to be on the table.