Why did l.a. swat take so long to engage in the hollywood shootout?

Question

surely a sniper could have ended it stat

Answer 1

The last thing a cop would like to do is a shootout.  They need to make sure the area is secure, there are no hostages, see if there is any connection to the location and the criminal, try to peacefully resolve the situation and is there a way to take him/her down without killing the person.  Also, they need a valid reason to shoot which usually means the criminal makes the situation hostile (in other words, they shoot first).  It's really more complex than you think it is.  Most people act out based on emotions, they want to know what triggered it.

Answer 2

SWAT does not just drive around waiting for a shootout.

They are patrol guys and investigators that are assigned to the specialty.  They need to be notified and assembled - this takes up to 60 minute in my jurisdiction.

You make a good point- this incident really made law enforcement evaluate our ability to to respond to these incidents.  More and more agencies are using tactical rifles and assigning patrol officers to use them.

The team that took out the last shooter thought they were going in for a citizen rescue and came upon the armed subject.  The ability to eliminate a threat if needed prior to a teams response is clearly needed - hence the birth of the officer assigned a tactical rifle.

Answer 3

They were looking for Rodney King.

Answer 4

the cat in tree

Answer 5

As many have pointed out, even theough LAPD has a full-time SWAT they have to deploy, evaluate. The shootout was moving way too fast for them to get there in time to contain the situation.

The street Officers did one h**l of a job getting people out of the way and trying to keep the two shooters in the area. But the fact was, they were seriously out gunned. Which is why many Patrol Officers have a rifle or carbine available to them to this day.

On a side note to Lissa. While it is preferable to diffuse a situation without a shot being fired, this was not the case! They robbed a Bank, were armored head to toe, started firing sub-machine guns at anything that moved, Police or Civilian. That leaves no doubt as to their intentions. It wasn't a "Time out! Can we talk about this?" moment.

Answer 6

SWAT don't drive around geared up ready to play, let alone fly around in choppers. Especially not at 9:30am...

#1: Once activated for the North Hollywood incident LAPD SWAT's biggest challenge was getting to the scene itself. They had to battle morning peak hour traffic (in LA which is horrible) to get from the LAPD Police Academy (Metropolitan Divisions "HQ") all the way downtown to North Hollywood. That in itself was a massive effort and time waster.

#2: Prior to the North Hollywood incident the LAPD, as other agencies, didn't have a proper airborne "sniper" capacity...as there had never been a need. Shooting from a heliborne platform accurately requires a lot of training and funding...which when there had never been an incident requiring it there had never been a need to train for it.

#3: Even if they did, the bad guys were firing at news choppers, forcing them to move WAY back.

#4: The odds of being able to organise a SWAT sniper to gear up, to get from wherever they are to an LAPD chopper, get airborne and then get IN RANGE to try and take them out would have been near impossible.

The North Hollywood shootout was a "watershed" incident for a lot of Law Enforcement agencies across the US.