When word of SWAT raids crackles over the police scanner, some of the talk always revolves around lights.
Plain old lights.
In a corner of the country where even the daytime can be awfully dark, Special Weapons and Tactics teams often need lights to keep a visual of the targeted area.
For example, when a suspect barricades himself inside a house, officers must make sure he doesn’t sneak out a back window and scurry away in the shadows.
Everett’s one of the few cities left in Snohomish County with its own SWAT team.
The Everett police SWAT team uses a couple of different kinds of lights, Sgt. Robert Goetz said.
Some SWAT equipment, such as the shields, already have lights affixed, as do some of the vehicles, Goetz said. The SWAT team also can bring in certain police rigs outfitted with brighter lights if needed.
For major or lengthy operations, police can borrow bigger lights from other city departments, such as public works.
“It depends on how much light we need,” Goetz said. “We have resources that we’ll bring in that are sufficient to light the area.”
So who runs the lights? Is it special lighting technicians or kids who happen to be in the neighborhood or what? One of the fun parts of being a reporter is resolving such strange curiosities.
“The deployment of those lights is typically done by SWAT team members or uniformed law enforcement personnel, so that we don’t put anyone else in danger,” Goetz said.
Sometimes police also ask the fire department to bring in extra lights, like when detectives are investigating a fatal crash at night, Goetz said.
At the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office, every SWAT operation has a perimeter, sheriff’s bureau chief Kevin Prentiss said. Any extra lights used in an operation are run by deputies who have clearance to be in the perimeter.
Bringing in large lights also is a routine part of many Major Crimes Unit investigations, Prentiss said.
Who runs what lights is just another piece of all the planning and tactics that go into every SWAT operation, Goetz said.
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