The Epidemiology of Injuries and Illnesses in SWAT Officers

Abstract

PURPOSE: The “athletes” of civilian law enforcement are usually members of the Special Weapons And Tactics (SWAT) team. The purpose of this project was to produce descriptive data regarding the epidemiology of injuries and illnesses to tactical (SWAT) team members of law-enforcement agencies, known as “tactical athletes”. METHODS: The study design was a 12-month, prospective, observational design with a cohort of three SWAT teams in North Florida. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the population and data. A total of 952 law enforcement officers (644 Tactical Officers) were observed from 17 different law enforcement agencies, during 47 missions (high-risk warrant service, or call-outs involving barricaded suspects) and training, totaling 164.75 hours of mission activity. Injury surveillance data were collected with Injury Tracker™ (Montreal, Canada) ITPalm software, a commercially available athletic injury tracking software program. The medical profiles of every member of that agency's SWAT team was downloaded onto a Palm™ Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) (Sunnyvale, CA), and any evaluations, treatments, procedures, or changes in the officer's condition were recorded on the PDA by the Tactical Medic/Certified Athletic Trainer following each mission or training session. RESULTS: No “tactical” injuries (gunshot wounds, blast injuries, or knife wounds) were sustained during this observation period. A total of 13 injuries were sustained during the study period (.078 injuries per hour). All injuries sustained by law enforcement officers during this period were musculoskeletal, small lacerations (not requiring suturing), or heat related illnesses, all of which occurred during training and were evaluated and treated on-site by a Certified Athletic Trainer. CONCLUSION: The types of injuries sustained in training by these “tactical athletes” were remarkably similar to any other athletic practice or training setting involving athletes. These unique descriptive data regarding the epidemiology of injuries and illnesses to SWAT team members provides justification for involving sports medicine practitioners in the care and treatment of these unique teams.