In December, 2004, the last two remaining "charter members" of our SWAT team retired from the Palm Springs Police Department. Commander Joe Rodriguez and Sergeant Walt Madison were both members of the team in 1978 when it was formed. Commander Rodriguez left the team briefly for a three year period due to injuries, but Sergeant Madison served on the SWAT team for the first 26 years of its existence with no break in service. He has been tireless in his efforts to secure training funds, equipment, and sites to keep the team razor sharp and operational.
As Tactical Commander, Sergeant Madison has set the tone for the level of excellence the team displays and the outstanding reputation the team enjoys throughout the Inland Empire. One of 14 tactical teams in Riverside / San Bernardino Counties, Palm Springs SWAT is viewed as a leader and role model for how a tactical team should be staffed, trained, and deployed.
Sergeant Madison's contribution has played a major role in the team's standing and development. Both of these old street warriors, Sergeant Walt Madison and Commander Joe Rodriguez with their combined 49 years of SWAT experience will be sorely missed.
The Palm Springs Police Department S.W.A.T. (Special Weapons and Tactics) Unit was formed in 1978 and is comprised of highly trained officers, each of whom can assume varied responsibilities with a high degree of expertise and proficiency. The unit is prepared to assume full control of specific tactical situations which, by nature, would be considered excessively dangerous and complex, or which would require the use of a specialized team effort rather than independent action by individual officers. Practically speaking, the unit is organized as a crisis intervention team with both negotiation and assault capabilities.
Negotiations initiated by the unit employ modern psychology and negotiation techniques. Stress, logical reasoning, time, utility control, barter and other concepts, tools and devices might be used to ease a crisis. Assault tactics employed by the unit reflect police strategy of handling and dealing with situations involving confrontations with potentially dangerous suspects. The concept of "apprehension of the suspect" is accomplished through the primary discipline of approaching each situation as a "life saving mission". The goal of the unit is to accomplish each mission without injury or death resulting from the unit's intervention. Foremost in the minds of the members is the preservation of life and safety of the community.
The Team is a consolidated team from Palm Springs and Cathedral City Police Departments. The unit is considered at full strength when staffed with 30 fully cross-trained officers, four full-time negotiators and two team physicians. Division of responsibility lies within two main elements; the Tactical Element, comprised of members who perform the entry work and hostage rescue, and the Technical Element, comprised of a four-man marksman team, two crisis negotiators, two gas specialists and the team doctor. All members wear a basic tan ASAT brand camouflaged uniform with brown and black tiger striping, which has been found to blend with the desert terrain. Officers wear ballistic vests and helmets and are armed with Heckler and Koch MP-5 machine guns and Benelli 12 gauge semi-automatic shotguns as primary entry weapons, and duty handguns as secondary weapons. The primary mode of transportation for the unit is a combination Equipment Van / Command Post vehicle designed to transport the men and equipment to the scene of a deployment and function as a crisis negotiation center and command post. S.W.A.T. duty is a secondary assignment and strictly voluntary. All members have primary assignments as Patrolmen or Detectives. The average "experience level" of the unit is 15 years.
The Team also deploys an armored vehicle for hostage rescue and to enter "hot zones" under fire.
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