Can you recommend a good place to find out about careers in L.E.?

Question

I teach high school English, and my seniors must do a research project about a career that interests them. One young man has said that he wants to be a S.W.A.T. member. I told him that I thought he needed to first become a police officer, but that I would check it out. I have searched the web, but, except for various city government pages, I cannot find many details about the career of a S.W.A.T. member. Do any of you police officers or S.W.A.T. members know of information sources I can recommend to this student? All sources are welcome (books, professional journal articles, web links, etc.). Thanks!

Oops, sorry. We are in San Antonio, TX.

Answer 1

www.officer.com may have info

Answer 2

Anybody that goes into SWAT or SRT (Special Response Team) same as SWAT just different name.....must be a licensed peace officer. The members of SWAT are very "elite" force, in terms of better training, better physical and mental endurance.
SWAT members are usually hand picked (depending on the department policies), they go through a series of tests, skills, experience and usually oral boards to select the few that would join the ranks and they also pick veterans members of the police force that have at least 5-7 yrs in the force.
Most of the law enforcement community has ties to the military, which means at one point or another they were Marines, Army, Navy....etc. That adds a big plus to someone's resume, especially if he has experience or has served as Special Forces, Delta Force or Navy Seals, or has been in a sniper school, and has the certificates to prove it.
These elite forces endure the most rigorous training just to be one of the best, and so is being a SWAT member. I suggest that if he really wants to do it and become a SWAT member, he can join the police force and test whenever there is an opening for him to do so, but with little or no experience is going to be a long road ahead of him. He can try the military as a 'back door" to beef up his resume and speed up the process. Since you were not specific as to what State you live in I can only give you a web site to visit hwere I work.

Good Luck

Answer 3

Most departments require you to be a patrol officer for X amount of time before they let you transfer to another division ie: swat, k-9, investigations, etc. It'll vary from each department though. Your best bet since you've already done an online search, would be to contact a local department(s) and do an interview with some of their swat officers. They might have brochures or even reports the student could look over for research. Those guys usually have some really good stories to tell lol...........

Found some links, also check under SRT, and can't think of the other terms, some corrections depts have a different name, something extraction team.

http://www.lapdauthors.com/swat/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SWAT

http://www.specialoperations.com/Domestic/dadesrt.html