In compliance with Maryland's Public Safety Article 3-507 - which requires law enforcement agencies that maintain a SWAT Team to report specified activation and deployment information to the Maryland Statistical Analysis Center (MSAC) - this report presents data on eligible SWAT Team deployments reported to MSAC during fiscal year 2014 (July 1, 2013 through June 30, 2014).
During fiscal year 2014, 1,689 SWAT deployments were activated in the State. This was an increase of 39 (2.4 percent) compared to fiscal year 2013 (n=1,650). SWAT deployments occurred in all 24 of the State's jurisdictions. Data for each county and zip code are reported. A total of 35 police departments reported at least one SWAT deployment in fiscal year 2014. Six agencies had an active SWAT Team but had no deployments. The SWAT Team deployments were almost exclusively (90-93 percent) in conjunction with the execution of a search warrant. Of these search warrants, 95-98 percent were initiated in response to a Part I felony crime or a Part II crime drug investigation. Two-thirds of the deployments involved a forcible entry; 80-87 percent involved the seizure of stolen property or contraband; and at least one arrest was made in two-thirds of all deployments. A discharged weapon or injury of a person by a SWAT Team officer occurred in less than 3 percent of all deployments. The injury or death of a person or a domestic animal by a SWAT Team member during a deployment happened in less than 3 percent of all deployments. 10 tables and 12 charts