S.W.A.T.

It is one of the well-known facts legal scholars anywhere will confirm: There is scholarship, there are books and articles on pretty much anything. I found a remarkable exception: There is not one serious article (not to mention books) in Germany on police special forces. I was looking, because I intend to write an article on those German special response units (in Germany they're called SEK, Spezialeinsatzkommandos), in the US mostly known as the various police departments’ Special Weapons And Tactics Units (SWAT). I always thought it was rather odd that there was so little law regarding those units while their potential impact on civil rights was so vast.

Now it seems my article will be the first to appear in Germany. German legal scholarship produces book shelves on how to build a pond in your garden (don’t go for fish) but nothing on that (if tiny) part of the executive branch that can intrude into the sphere of citizens the most? But scholarship is not the biggest issue. There is no special (neither federal or state) law regarding SWAT units in Germany. They act under the same laws as any other police officer. Do they? If they do, why is it they’re dressed like Ninja Turtles and are equipped like the military? It’d be great to know how it is in the US and whether anybody shares my amazement about all this. After all, ticking time bomb scenarios (which I always found important to pose) and other terrorism-related issues are important, but these special police units are conducting some sort of war (against criminals) on a pretty much every day basis and all we know about them as lawyers in Germany are (good) motion pictures starring Collin Farrell.

(On Thursday, a German SWAT unit entered a school in the city of Ludwigshafen after a student killed his teacher; the look of the officers on this picture taken at the scene might support my article).