I love it when guys know everything but really absolutely nothing.
The accidental shooting was one Detective shooting another Detective. Neither where SWAT. Neither had ever been SWAT. The reason SWAT became so well used was these types of accidents happened a lot more back in 1960s before SWAT. Because the personality and skills needed to be a Detective don't have anything to do with making Entries. We used SWAT for years and got good at this. BART PD has been under the gun for use of force and it just about takes an act of Congress to use their SWAT Team. Thus they are using Detectives for the search warrants. This is a problem in that they are not as well trained for entry work as a SWAT Team. When I ran a Detective Division I used to argue the following point. Pay the SWAT Overtime now or the lawsuit later. As to Bart PD having a SWAT Team. Its actually called SPAR. Special Problems And Rescue. Officers are trained to do everything from entry to rescue work. Its a well trained unit and has won many competitions. As to Bart PDs problems. Well since the officer screwed up and shot the guy by accident, they have been under the microscope and basically handcuffed from doing any work. That's a shame because the system runs through ever low cost neighborhood in Bay Area and attracts some real bad guys. I saw a survey back in the 1990s and found BART had four times more Felonies per Police Officer to handle than the second busiest Transit PD in the Nations ( NYPD's Transist) Last I looked it was the busiest Transit PD in nation by far. Data is from about ten years ago but back then they handled around 40,000 calls for service per year for about 150 cops.
As to Oakland having the police department it deserves. Well I have only worked and lived in the area for 33 years so not as much experience as many experts here, but the police department is under FEDERAL THUMB. You see the Feds decided OPD was too heavy handed and stepped in.
OPD did more with less officers than any other PD I know of for around a 100 years. Then the Feds stepped in and frankly fucked everything up.
As to Police in general. Because the public has done nothing but attack every single move any officer does not many are willing to protect our asses anymore. Me I did 25 years and retired as soon as I could. I had enough of folks sitting in easy chairs and at computer screens telling me everything I did wrong, while I was being stitched up.
Not living in CA, I'm relegated to getting news from other sources, I've checked, and you are right I am wrong, the shooter, a Detective, was in fact Not a Member of BART SWAT-kind of a tag along-always asking to be included kinda guy (according to the news sources I'm able to get via the net). Evidently, the apt they were going to search resident was in custody, in jail, when they went looking for stolen goods-maybe they were expecting this thief to have a real bad ass waiting for them, thus the need for large group. As you bring up NYPD, back in 1992 the NYPD "took over" and incorporated the NY Transit police into the NYPD, a wise $$$$ saving move for their cities tax payers. A lot of duplication was eliminated etc. (it hasn't helped with the taxes in NY, they seem to find a place to spend the money regardless), I don't know about the other top transits in the US (NY, Washington D.C., Chicago, Mass Area Trans Auth being the top four). Back in the 1990's when BART has 4 times as many Felonies than other Transit PDs, God Bless-what was the number of arrests and prosecutions, they must have been sky high also-now that's a number to brag on! I'll bet with those kind of numbers, the average BART cop arrested 4 times as many criminals as almost any other PD in the nation-way to go. And thanks for setting the record straight, He was a detective with BART but not a member of the SWAT team.
Regarding your numbers, 40,000 calls/year with only 150 cops, I am sure you're numbers are right on, no one would have made this sort of thing up. If the average cop works 8 hours per day 50 weeks a year that is 2000 hours
2000 hours x 150=300,000 hours
300,000/40,000 arrests=1 arrest every 7.5 hours/hours worked, how does this stack up to other departments? I'll bet you guys are leaders to be sure, I realize you're in a "target rich environment" but nonetheless, I doubt if there are any other departments that can touch these type of numbers, God Bless.