SWAT

Members of the Lawrence Police Department’s Special Weapons and Tactics team are trained and equipped to respond to critical incidents that pose the risk of serious injury or death to innocent people, officers and/or suspects and that may not be successfully resolved by conventional law enforcement response.

The Lawrence Police Department’s SWAT team is made up of 18 officers who are on-call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This is in addition to their regular duties and assignments. The team trains monthly.

The SWAT team is called for hostage situations and negotiations, barricaded suspects, service of high-risk warrants, drug raids and search warrants, searches for armed subjects, VIP protection, stakeouts and undercover surveillance, civil disorder and other special or unusual events. SWAT handles any incident that may devolve into armed confrontation, which through containment and specialized tactics, would more likely be resolved without injury or loss of life.