Report:
Revamp LAPD SWAT
LOS
ANGELES (AP) — A new report recommends the Los Angeles Police Department’s
elite SWAT team be overhauled.
A summary
of the report, compiled by a panel of police officers from other departments,
was released Tuesday.
Although
the report contained praise for the unit, it found SWAT officers to often be “insular,
self-justifying and resistant to change.”
It said
SWAT officers are also too hasty at times to move into assault mode rather than
give negotiators more time to resolve a crisis.
Chief
William Bratton says he is ready to implement many of the report’s
recommendations.
The
document was produced by a special board set up to examine SWAT after an
officer accidentally shot and killed a toddler during a 2005 gunbattle with her
father. Police said the man was holding his child as a shield as he fired on
the officers.