s attempted and surrender is requested. If thesuspect refuses to surrender or respond, a tactical plan of operation is initiated. Often afirst line of extracting a suspect is the use of chemical agents. However, reactions tochemical agents are unpredictable. Persons under the influence of drugs and alcohol, orwith mental disorders are often unaffected by chemical agents. Other persons willsurrender or hide and in some cases fight and attack. Once the decision to make entry intothe barricaded stronghold is made, the tactical team must decide their tactical approach: stealth or dynamic. A number of factors will determine this decision, however, a majorconsideration is the suspects behavior. Behavior of barricaded suspects is fairlyconsistent, they hide. Often, times they hide in the furthest area away from the entrypoint. Consequently, stealth tactics, which employ slow methodical search techniques, canbe an advantage to the entry team, as it systematically eliminates potential hides. Utilizingexisting lighting and the Opti-wand to mirror for threats, the officers advantage is furtherenhanced. However, this is not to say that all barricaded suspects behave in the samemanner. A SWAT officer must never assume anything and always expect the unexpected.Hostage Rescue: Hostage rescues are characterized by speed, diversion, and surprise,during which officers maintain aggressiveness, momentum, team work and fast accurateshooting. The tactical approach taken when entering a stronghold containing hostages ispredicted on many factors, not the least of which is the size of the structure and whetherthe location of the hostage is known. When the location of the hostage is know, officersassault directly to that location using controlled speed. Once positioned near the hostage,officers use explosive breaches and flashbangs as diversions. When the hostage location isunknown, officers must systematically search to contact. If contact is...
