SWAT makes a courtesy knock then they ram the door open and throw flashbangs before they burst in with their fingers on the trigger and take you down by force.

If this is the police response you think is appropriate for the vast majority of police calls then I think you should reevaluate your country of residence.

”the vast majority of police calls” you got any statistics to back that claim up? Are you saying that much more then 50 percent of police calls lead to swat raids?

In Maryland, 90% of SWAT deployments were to serve search warrants, with two-thirds through forced entry.

I'm sure you could go state by state and find similar percentages.

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No-knock_warrant

What he is asserting is that in the vast majority of cases where SWAT is used it is not an appropriate escalation from more mundane police procedures.

I'm sure the other 60% who had their property destroyed and fully automatic weapons shoved in their faces while being forced to the ground and handcuffed will be pleased to hear this news.

I'm sure the dead people of those 60% are just dancing in their graves at the "success".

Would the success rate be significantly lower if normal police procedures were followed instead? To count as a 'success' fro SWAT they would need to show that SWAT methods were appropriate and necessary.

It's even worse, as to count as a success, they would also need to show not just that they find something in more cases than without swat, but that the extra disturbance they cause when they don't find anything is worth it too.

Not to mention that what they find should be worth found too (e.g. some kid's stash of weed or some guy's coke is not to be counted among the "successes" -- you don't send a SWAT team for that, you send it to major dealers).

"4/10 found nothing" means that success rate is 60%

Given the honesty of the police historically "4/10 found nothing" means a 40% total fuck up rate. 60% who knows wtf really went down.

To be picky, it means that it's no greater than 60%. I'm not sure that an armed raid which turned up, say, the dog end of a joint or a line's worth of speed should be counted as a success.

What are we defining as success here? I don't think targeting minority demographics via drug raids is successful no matter how often they find drugs. The success rate isn't what we're concerned with. It's simply used to illustrate the larger problem of an overly militarized police state with little regard over its use of force

To invoke a swat team killing people and, given the fourth amendment, I for one, don't think 40% is high or a success. Maybe you are high?

And thank god. Truly a small price to pay for deliverance from the drug epidemic!