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San Antonio police spent tens of thousands of dollars on February trip to Dubai SWAT competition

Members of the SAPD SWAT team about to begin their course on the third day of the UAE SWAT Challenge.
Courtesy photo
/
@DubaiPoliceHQ
Members of the SAPD SWAT team about to begin their course on the third day of the UAE SWAT Challenge.

Members of San Antonio’s SWAT Team participated in a police competition in Dubai in February. Advocates for human rights and police reform claimed the event offered the officers the dangerous opportunity to learn from experienced human rights abusers.

When TPR first reported on the San Antonio Police Department’s participation in the competition, the SAPD said the Dubai Police paid for officers’ travel and lodging expenses. But the department did not disclose whether officers used personal leave or how much the department paid them during the trip.

New records obtained through open records requests showed that SAPD gave administrative leave to officers and paid out a total of up to $27,717.84 during their time in Dubai, according to TPR’s estimate.

The SAPD and NYPD were the only two U.S. law enforcement agencies to send officers to the United Arab Emirates SWAT Challenge, which had a stated purpose to foster an exchange of tactical techniques and skills among the 73 participating law enforcement agencies.

SAPD’s SWAT team participated in the UAE SWAT Challenge for the first time this year, and human rights and police reform advocates say the decision was a major mistake.

Several of those agencies operate in countries where the U.S. State Department has assessed serious violations of human and civil rights, including China, Russia, the Philippines, and the UAE.

Ananda Tomas, the executive director of the police reform group ACT4SA who has criticized SAPD’s involvement in the SWAT competition, said the situation was made even worse by the use of tax dollars.

“Not only did we participate in this week of SWAT games with police departments that have human rights violations accusations against them, but then taxpayer money went towards it,” Tomas said.

Each of the eight officers received 72 hours of administrative leave, from Jan. 30 to Feb. 2 and then from Feb. 5 to Feb. 9. The competition itself began on Feb. 1 and ended on Feb. 5.

Ariel Dulitzky, the director of UT Austin School of Law’s Human Rights Clinic and a clinical professor, said the fact that officers didn’t have to take personal leave to go to the event enforces criticisms of the department’s decision to officially approve of the competition.

“If [SAPD] continued to pay their salary it means that it probably was considered an official activity of the officers, and not a private trip. … It for sure is something that the department didn’t feel the need to officially disassociate from the participation of the individual officers,” he said.

A section of one of the leave forms for a SWAT officer who was given administrative leave to travel to Dubai for the UAE SWAT Challenge.
Open Records
/
San Antonio Police Department
A section of one of the leave forms for a SWAT officer who was given administrative leave to travel to Dubai for the UAE SWAT Challenge.

SAPD SWAT officers have base salaries between $77,676.04 and $100,092.20, according to SAPD records. Given their combined 576 hours of paid administrative leave, that means officers were paid between $21,510.29 and $27,717.84 while they were competing in Dubai.

Tomas said the spending of tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars so that officers could compete in an event like the UAE SWAT Challenge is proof that the police department’s budget is far larger than it needs to be.

“When folks are asking for more money for officers or for public safety, they’re not thinking about trips to Dubai to participate in competitions with organizations known to violate human rights, they’re thinking about more services, more park police, more whatever it is that they want from them that’s directly helping their community,” she said.

In a statement, SAPD said it could not confirm the amount of money paid to officers and declined to give additional comment.

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