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Comment by dmonitor | Hacker News Reader

the amount of property damage and risk of death that comes from just a single phone call is honestly terrifying.

When SWAT was first instituted, the idea was that it would only be used for high-stakes situations. The Grubulanese Liberation Army has taken 33 hostages at the First Asshole Bank, and are threatening to kill one every 10 minutes until their demands are met.

Now SWAT teams are used to serve warrants in residential neighborhoods.

The funny thing is even in that sort of hostage scenario, they’re much better off sending Jack Slater in instead of a SWAT team.

Who's that? Obviously the Hostage Rescue Team exists, but most hostage situations don't last for days and getting a specific group of people across the country to the scene is harder than getting a team there that's already in the city.

Are they really sending in the actual SWAT, or are the regular cops just now so well armed and body armored up they look like SWAT to civies?

What's the difference?

a whole lot of difference, and it's sad you even have to ask. actual cops dressed up don't actually have the training SWAT does. everyone forgets the And Tactics part of the acronym and just focuses on special weapons part, but street cops aren't going to have those tactics. they're just going to have big gun with armor and giant egos and possibly scared shitless and prone to make mistakes.

The problem is that every rural county sheriff's office and podunk city police force now has a "SWAT" team that has nowhere near the training that the early examples of the idea have.

That Sheriff's office not only has a poorly trained SWAT, they also have a military surplus armored personnel carrier, a few shoulder launched rockets just in case things get a little dicey, and extensive reinforcement of the idea that everyone's out to get them and they have to react quickly with the maximum amount of force or their lives are in jeopardy.

Cops don't kill people, phone calls kill people.

the police who enter homes and shoot, are each individual humans carrying out the act

The alternative is a dystopian slippery slope.

ie Please press 4 if you think they have a weapon.

The current situation is literally the BOTTOM of a slippery slope.

"Make an anonymous phone call if you would like the state to murder someone!"

Of course totalitarians want to solve it by making sure no one can make an anonymous phone call.

Crazy opinion, but I don't think someone should be able to call in an emergency where a SWAT team might show up, without having that be tracked back to you.

This isn't the state proactively keeping tabs on its citizens, it's asking for traceability when somebody initiates an action that might put lives at risk.

it's clearly an "anything but reducing cop presence and power" strategy and cover

It's possible to call emergency numbers without a SIM card. So the caller could use a disposable dumb phone that he bought on a flea market or whatever. The best info the cops could get would be the approximate location of the caller. Good luck with that.

Good luck with what? If a call can’t be authenticated, don’t send deadly force.

The expectation that an emergency can be signaled from a single phone call is reasonable (barely one step up from shouting "help"). Objecting the resulting behavior of the emergency response is not relevant to the predictably effective practice.

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