Expert: Dick Rogers - 1/23/2009

Question
Hi, my name is Rafael Almeida and i want to be a SWAT agent, and I don't know how to be it in Portugal! I will finish my school years in portugal and i think that there isn't SWAT portuguese carreers, what do i do?

Answer
Rafael, I do not know how things are done in Portugal, but here in the states, most departments have a special unit that trains and maintains swat teams.  In my own department this special unit would take a few days and all members of the swat unit would participate in what we call a "shooout"...wherein you are tested with a sniper rifle at various distances and when the shooting competition is finished, they will have a pretty good idea of who are the best shooters, etc.  Most swat units in this country are very experienced patrol officers who specifically ask to be assigned to the swat unit.  I would think that it would be similar in Portugal, but I can't be sure of that.  Each swat team would have a sniper, a grenade man, and a spotter...we had ten such teams on our department. Hope this helps a bit.