THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE OF THE MENOMONIE, WI POLICE DEPARTMENT
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THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE OF THE MENOMONIE, WI POLICE DEPARTMENT |
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S.W.A.T. Team
The Menomonie Police Department's Special
Weapons and Tactic's Team (S.W.A.T.) is designed to equip the community with a
flexible and effective
 response
to unconventional and high risk law enforcement incidents. Its basic premise
is that a select group of highly motivated and well conditioned officers,
especially equipped and trained to function as a tactical unit in a variety of
situations, can be more effectively and safely employed in a special law
enforcement problem than a larger group of officers not so trained and
equipped.
Prior to the establishment of the Team, the Department only had two choices in dealing with dangerous critical incidents. The first was to do nothing by simply isolating the situation and hope that it would resolve itself in a positive manner. The problem with this scenario is that citizens can be injured or even killed while the police department remains paralyzed lacking a tactical plan or personnel to carry it out. The second choice was to implement an ill-conceived plan carried out by untrained officers and risk injury and death to all involved. From a liability standpoint, neither of these options are acceptable. The Team's primary function is one of containment. Safe and effective containment of an armed suspect is necessary to buy the needed time to negotiate a peaceful resolution of a high risk incident. Our S.W.A.T. Team is just one component of an overall strategy to be utilized to resolve a high risk incident. The Department has also invested time and money in training negotiators and staff officers to take command of the overall problems. The pictures on this page were taken during a recent training session. For further information on the Menomonie Police Department S.W.A.T. Team, contact S.W.A.T. Commander, Lt. Todd Swartz at (715) 232-2198 x151.
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