When a critical incident occurs in the City of Brunswick, the Division of Police calls on a team of officers that have received specialized training and are specially equipped to deal with dangerous situations, such as hostage situations, barricaded persons, high-risk warrant service, explosive devices, and heavily-armed criminals. This team is called SWAT for Special Weapons And Tactics.
The team consists of police officers from Brunswick City, Brunswick Hills Township, Hinckley Township, and a medic from Brunswick City Fire Department. These officers are assigned to other police duties full-time, and respond as SWAT to emergency incidents when they occur. The unit responds to incidents in Brunswick, Brunswick Hills, and Hinckley, and also will respond to assist other county tactical units as backup.
Team members receive initial training from members of the Miami-Dade (Florida) Emergency Response Team, followed by monthly training while on the team.
The division is also a member of the Southwest Enforcement Bureau (SEB). This organization is made up of many of the police departments in the southwest portion of Cuyahoga County. SEB consists of a tactical team, hostage negotiation team, sniper/scout team, and a bomb team. This pooling of resources allows the Brunswick Police to have a large amount of technical police knowledge and manpower to handle any critical police situation that occurs.
In 2011, the Brunswick SWAT team was not activated for any critical incidents.
In 2011, the Western Region of the SEB tactical team was activated twice:
- warrant service for felonious assault;
- suicidal male with a gun to his head.
