OHIO NEEDS STANDARDS FOR TACTICAL POLICE

Some vendors of tactical police equipment -- specialty weapons, body
armor, high-tech gadgetry -- market their wares as though they're
selling to soldiers of fortune, rather than local police. Their
advertising displays take on qualities of comic books.

In special police operations, though, macho swagger and menacing
uniforms are a poor substitute for training, discipline and common
sense. The results can be tragic, as Preble County learned the hard
way when its well-equipped but woefully unprepared SWAT team stormed
into a farm house to execute a search warrant for drugs on Sept. 27,
2002.

They carried out a few grams of marijuana and the body of 23-year-old
Clayton Helriggle, who lived in the house and was shot during the
nighttime raid as he descended the stairs with a gun in his hand.

How can mistakes like these be minimized? Develop strict professional
standards and apply them uniformly to all police tactical units.

Attorney General Jim Petro oversees state police training standards.
The Preble County incident should be instructive, as it was the
subject of an intensive investigation by the Montgomery County
Sheriff's Department, the results of which were described Sunday in a
Dayton Daily News article, "A deadly raid."

Many resources are available to aid the attorney general in such an
initiative.

The National Tactical Officers Association publishes a list of "best
practices" and other practical materials.

California Attorney General Bill Locklear formed a statewide
commission for this purpose. Like Ohio, California lacks standards for
SWAT teams. So, the attorney general there convened a group of police
executives and community representatives to identify problems and
recommend solutions.

The commission held public hearings focusing on training, tactics,
policy and equipment and risk management. It issued its report last
fall, which makes a variety of findings. (Read it at
ag.ca.gov/publications/swat.pdf)

Some things are simple. Lack of uniformity in equipment and team
member identification and, of all things, uniforms, for example, was
found to create risks and affect public confidence in special police
units.

Similarly, there's confusion concerning the purpose of SWAT teams, and
the commission concluded the public and law-enforcement officials
benefit by defining their mission and spelling it out clearly.

Other issues are more complex, such as strategies for deciding when to
use these special units and how to reduce risk when they are deployed.
Here, the commission showed how agencies instill discipline when
planning for dangerous operations.

Montgomery County has highly professional police tactical units, but
that was not always so. The Preble County incident shows how problems
with professionalism still can strike close to home.

By establishing statewide standards, Attorney General Petro wouldn't
just protect the public; he also would help law-enforcement officers
stay safe -- helping them to avoid the kind of tragedy that occurred
in that Preble County farmhouse.