Expert: Jack Toomey - 4/14/2008

Question
QUESTION: hello, i'm 15 and interseted in becoming a SWAT member and i was wondering if you would answer a few questions for me. first, what kind of education do i need? also, will i travel a lot, or any? and about how much a year would i make? i would really appreciate you getting back to me, because i am very interested in doing this and it's been my dream for about two years now, thank you for you time and concern
Natasha Ray

ANSWER: Natasha,

  There are normally no educational requirements for the SWAT team becaue the requirement would be the same for the police department that you work for.  However the more education that you have the better chance that you will have on being accepted.

  Now let me explain something that young people are usually not aware of.  The SWAT that you see on tv is nothing like what happens in real life.  It is all not busting in doors or shooting at people.  Actually an officer would probably go through his/her entire life without ever firing his gun.  What also comes as a shock to most young people is that you will first spend many years in on the street as a uniformed officer before you would ever have the skills necessary to become a SWAT team member and then you would compete with other officers if a vacancy came about.

   There would be no travelling involved because you would be working for a town, city, county, or state police department and any transfers would only involve a few miles.  

  So right now you should be concentrated on having almost perfect attendance, getting excellent grades, having a spotless disciplinary record, and of course never being arrested or getting traffic tickets because they will be checking all of these things in six years when you become eligible to become a police officer.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you very much for answering my questions. I had a feeling that most SWAT members go many years without firing a gun, because the goal is to never use your gun, unless in an emegency. I did also know that i need to be a cop okn the street first. I have been doing research like crazy, im really interested in doing this, and evryone is telling me i can't do it, not physically, but mentally,and that encourages me more. But i do have one more question that i would like to ask you: how many people are accepted, average, in a year. And what time a year do i apply, when im able to?

Answer
Its impossible to tell you how many officers are accepted in a year because we are talking about the size of the department, the size of the SWAT team, and the number of hires and retirements.  For example the New York City SWAT team might have 200 officers who work in squads with some off-duty while others are on call and others working.  On the other hand you might have Podunk City, Iowa (I hope you don't live in Iowa) that might have a five member SWAT team.  On larger departments you will have larger SWAT teams but then you will have a larger competition for those spots when they open.  On larger departments you will have a larger turnover because officers come and go but so do the number of officers who want to get in.  On smaller departments you might have the same officers for years but on smaller departments typically SWAT team members work for patrol and then when a SWAT situation develops they simply change out of their uniform, like Superman, into their SWAT uniform and go to the call.

  Not sure what you mean by "what time a year do I apply"?  If you are asking how many times a year do you apply the answer is you don't.  You apply when there is a vacancy just like you would do when there is a vacancy at Walmart and you wanted a job there.  If there are no vacancies then they would not be taking applications.  So what I am saying is once you become a police officer you will learn how your particular department works and how the process works for applying.