SWAT Calls: The Cost Of Keeping You Safe

When they speak, criminals listen, especially when the voice is booming from a loud speaker, “Yakima Police Department. You are surrounded.”

SWAT Sgt. Chad Stephens

“Obviously you don’t need a SWAT team at every call you go to, but when you do need one there’s really nothing what can replace it,” says SWAT Sgt. Chad Stephens.

Which leaves the obvious question: how do you decide in a given situation when the SWAT team is going to be deployed?

“Well, it’s based on the the amount of danger and risk to an officer and civilians that are dealing with the situation and are involved in it at the time,” Stephens explains.

That doesn’t just mean gang-bangers and drug dealers. SWAT was on the scene in December for robbery suspects. And just last week, a SWAT call for an illegal immigrant holed up in a home. Clearly not every call involves violent criminals.

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2010 U.S. National SWAT Championships

The La Plata County Sheriff’s Office took first place among 18 “On-Call” teams last week at the 2010 U.S. National SWAT Championships in Tulsa, Okla.

An On-Call team is made up of officers with separate primary jobs within their law-enforcement agencies who come together as a tactical team only as the need arises. At the conclusion of the three-day event, the Sheriff’s Office team was in fourth place overall. The win in that category netted the team a championship trophy. The seven members from the Sheriff’s Office finished among much bigger departments, including the San Antonio SWAT Team, the Zurich (Switzerland) Police Department and the Dallas SWAT Team.

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Deputies On Mend After Shooting

Yay! Get well soon, guys!

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The conditions of two deputies wounded Friday in a gun battle has improved significantly at Lakeland Regional Medical Center, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said Sunday.

The condition of Deputy Paul Fairbanks III, who was originally listed in critical condition, has improved to serious, the Sheriff’s Office said.

The deputies were wounded during what began as a routine stop of Matthew Tutt, 21, early Friday. Tutt pulled a handgun and shot Fairbanks and Deputy Mike Braswell, according to the Sheriff’s Office. Tutt was killed in the shootout.

Fairbanks, 58, suffered wounds to his stomach, left elbow and wrist. He was wearing a bullet-proof vest.

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Technology has changed, but Salt Lake police still serve and protect

To serve and protect — Utah’s police officers and sheriffs have done just that over the years and the Deseret News has chronicled much of the history of local law enforcement through photographs.

From when a “Police Patrol” traveled by horse and wagon through the streets of Salt Lake City to the addition of air travel by helicopter through the skies of Utah, police have been aided by inventions.

A News photograph by Howard C. Moore, in 1959, heralds when the Salt Lake Police Department began an official “canine corps.” And, yes, German shepherds were the dog of choice then, too, by law enforcement.

A Feb. 7, 1962, photograph in the Deseret News, of Salt Lake police officers Blain Clark and Frank Hanchett in their patrol car, conjures up images of “Car 54, Where Are You?” for those old enough to have grown up with that show. “Car 54″ was an NBC-TV show that aired from 1961-63.

In that same era, on March 22, 1961, another photograph of Salt Lake Police Chief L.C. Crowther highlights the premiere of the first two mobile crime labs to assist law enforcement efforts.

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