[1] in finnish: http://nyt.fi/a1305943609673
This stuff doesn't have to be the standard. This is a fad borne of the fact that most people who are SWATed find boots on their necks and cuffs on their wrists before they're capable of explaining themselves. If they're lucky.
Here's an example of a women with a knife making threats to kill people and ignoring police instruction where those police are clearly armed and prepared to kill.
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/apr/03/idaho-police-...
She was pregnant; the knife was a three inch blade; the police had less-lethal options available but chose not to use them; police did not just have their pistols - one of them had an AR15 rifle.
There were things the police could have done that would have avoided the death of the woman (and the risk of death or injury to bystanders). (I'm not talking about shoot to wound - I know enough to know that's misguided). The police could have used their tasers. They should have been given better training in de-escalation.
I'm doing my best to spare the diatribe about how the Oakland Police Department is essentially the worst police department in the US.
Let's just take a step back. In what world does someone who wants a ransom for a hostage call the police? This isn't something that happens, except in action movies. The entire narrative, including the police reaction, is straight out of a sophomore film student's twisted imagination.
The police, esp in the US, but in general, aren't designed to protect and serve, they're designed to eliminate threats to power. Right now Oakland has a new mayor who wants to make sure voters see that she is tough on crime.
This situation is an unfortunate collision of two worlds that know very little about each other. :/
Any witness can call and describe the situation, as well as victims that are in hiding.
If you were a 911 operator and got a call that was ordering a Pizza you would have hang up right?
There needs to be a high bar for using it (maybe even "don't").
To put it in a fire department metaphor, if someone anonymously calls in a fire, naturally you send out the trucks. But you need to check for smoke before you turn the hose on, right?
So FYI for other people nor unerstanding finnish: This is about some finns (probably teens) calling police to some address in another country, not police raiding homes swat style in Finland.
Article also states that KRP (national bureau of investigation, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Bureau_of_Investigatio...) is investigating the issue so finnish police is definitely not taking this lightly.