Expert: Chris Wagoner - 12/15/2009

Question
QUESTION: Hello

i am interested in knowing more about swat and the admissions process and screening. i will list a few of the things that might make me qualify ahead of others and please let me know if they will give me any sort of advantage. i am a 0331 which is machine gunner, in the united states marine corps, i am already almost an expert at clearing houses and structures because for about two years we were training for Iraq. and i have been to the middle east. i am in a leadership position, in charge of 2 marines at all times. i have done extensive training as a 0311 basic grunt, and am a professional machine gunner with the m240 medium machine gun. please let me know if anything i have listed here would help me become a swat member

ANSWER: Hi Joshua,

Your military training in general will help you when and if you apply to be a SWAT member, but there is much more to it than that and they also do things a lot differently then they do in the military. We used to clear rooms by grenade or weapons fire, in SWAT you can't do that. It takes some getting used too.

As you know you have to become a police officer first before you can become a SWAT/ SRT team member. And in order to be a police officer you have to keep a clean record and stay away from drugs.

But you have to be a police officer first before you can become a SWAT member. As for SWAT. Many people are under the impression that being a SWAT team member is a full time position. In 99% of departments its not, it is what we call a secondary position. That means that you are a patrolman or detective or whatever position you are serving in and a SWAT member second. You carry all the SWAT gear in your assigned vehicle or its carried in the SWAT response vehicle, and when you are needed for a SWAT call out, they notify you and you respond to the location and become a SWAT team member.

That’s how secondary positions work. Other secondary positions in most places are teams like Dive team, Search and Rescue and others like these that are not needed all the time. SWAT teams require a lot of physical and mental discipline.

Before you can apply for any additional position you have to have been on the force a year in some places, more in others. Its up to the department.

Here is a list of just some of the additional units available in the police department:

Aviation Unit
Bicycle Patrol
Bomb Squad
Canine Unit
Child Protective Investigations Section
Contractor Licensing and Fraud Unit
Crime Scene and Crime Lab
Crime Stoppers Unit
DUI Unit
Economic Crime Unit
Evidence Unit
Marine Unit and Dive Team
Mass Transit Unit
Motorcycle Unit
Mounted Patrol
Regional Investigations Division
School Resource Deputy Unit
SWAT Team
Victim Services Unit

So you see there are many other specialty units you can get into.

Good luck and be safe. And I commend you for thinking of Law Enforcement as a career.


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

QUESTION: What is the basic pay for a police officer, and if he were to have the title as a S.W.A.T. team member along with patrol man, what is the pay then? does that officer make more money because he is also S.W.A.T.

Answer
Hi again Joshua,

Starting pay varies by location, but in Florida its around $35,000 - $40,000 for a starting police officer. SWAT pay also varies but usually is about 100-300 a month extra on top of your regular pay, plus overtime for any call-outs you have to answer.

Be safe..