Victim of police raid pushes for reporting on use of SWAT teams

Cheye Calvo, victim of a misfired raid during which
police killed his dogs, wants to know how often SWAT
is deployed.

Cheye Calvo, the mayor of Berwyn Heights, Maryland, and the victim of a bloody, misfired paramilitary police raid, is joining with Maryland legislators to push for a law requiring law-enforcement agencies throughout the state to report on their use of SWAT teams. Incredibly, that information is not currently easy to come by.

Calvo was targeted for a violent police raid because Prince George's County police had intercepted a box of marijuana addressed to his home. Even though police knew that smugglers often pick addresses at random, intending to divert the shipment before it ever arrives, they sent uniformed officers crashing through his door with guns blazing. Calvo's dogs, Payton and Chase, were killed and his family terrorized before county police conceded that they made an error. Calvo and his family were cleared of any wrongdoing.

While the text of the legislation is not yet available online, it has been introduced in the state Senate (SB 447), where it is sponsored by Senators Muse, Frosh, Haines, Mooney, Peters, Raskin, and Stone, and should be introduced soon in the state House.of Delegates. According to a press release announcing the legislation:

The incident involving Mayor Calvo drew international outrage and brought to light issues surrounding SWAT deployments, which have becoming increasing common in recent years. Preliminary estimates suggest that law enforcement in Prince George’s County deployed SWAT teams as many as 700 times in 2007 and about 400 times in 2008 for drug warrants alone. Of particular concern is that there is little to no reporting of SWAT deployments and their results. The proposed bill for the first time would provide statewide oversight by requiring all law enforcement agencies that deploy SWAT teams to report monthly to the attorney general and their local governing bodies on the number, purpose, authorization, general location, and results of deployments.

In an email to me about the proposed law, Calvo said, "It does not go as far as I perhaps may like, but I think that it has a decent chance of passage (I have been working it hard) and would be a significant step in just letting us know the number, location, purpose, authorization, and results of SWAT team deployment. It would be the first such law in the country."

Contact J.D.: civilliberties (at) tuccille.com