A Brooklyn Park Police Department SWAT vehicle, pictured in 2025.
(Sun file photo by Jack Wiedner)
Brooklyn Park and Brooklyn Center will soon have a unified SWAT and Crisis Negotiation Team, combining the tactical resources and response capabilities of the two cities. Under a Joint Powers Agreement, the Brooklyn Park Police Department will serve as the coordinating agency while incorporating equipment and officers from the Brooklyn Center Police Department.
The JPA was first approved by the Brooklyn Center City Council at a July 13 meeting before moving to the Brooklyn Park City Council on July 27 — where it was approved following a brief presentation by Deputy Chief Elliot Faust.
Faust estimated the combined SWAT team will have roughly 37 members, 25 from the BPPD and 12 from the BCPD. Both cities will gain access to each other’s equipment and have the opportunity to place resources throughout the two communities.
“The nature of the calls that we’re facing in this day and age that require a tactical response are increasing. The needs and the capabilities of all these individual teams are also on the rise,” Faust said. “As our team’s needs continue to grow, we have to fight against the additional cost that is associated with that.”
The BPPD will coordinate both the administrative and command structure of the SWAT team, including the appointment of a SWAT team commander.
Faust noted that multiple nearby agencies have combined SWAT teams — such as Crystal, New Hope and Robbinsdale, which operate together as West Metro SWAT. While that partnership has been in place for decades, Faust said combining these services is becoming a “trend in the industry.”
“Anoka County is a really great example. About two years ago, their entire county combined into one singular SWAT team,” Faust highlighted. “Not only have they been able to increase the number of personnel and their team without overburdening any particular agency, but they’re also able to spread that experience out throughout their entire county.”
Faust described a SWAT partnership between the two departments as a “natural” fit. He also called it a “cost-neutral move.”
“They’re that close to us. We work so closely with them already, and it just made a lot of sense for them to be somebody that would reach out to and just start this conversation,” Faust said. “We’ve gone over each of our team’s standard operating procedures. They resemble one another. We have very close alignment on how we handle things.”
A single identity is also in the works created for the combined team. Both agencies would have input in the naming process, though Faust said it is possible the team would simply remain “Brooklyn Park SWAT.”
Prior to the vote, Council Member Christian Eriksen noted that residents might be skeptical of a combined SWAT team.
“I think residents might look at Brooklyn Park police and Brooklyn Center police and see two very different organizational cultures, with very different organizational histories,” he said. “[They might] wonder, ‘Is this a good fit, and is it the safest move for our folks? Are we putting our staff in a situation where they might be compromised culturally?’”
Chief Mark Bruley said the JPA wouldn’t be under consideration if he had “any inclination that was going to be a problem or hindrance” and highlighted his trust in BCPD leadership. He also reiterated the BPPD would be the hosting and coordinating agency.
“This is them joining our SWAT team, our command staff, our structure. That really wasn’t negotiable,” Bruley said. “So, I have complete confidence in them, to be honest with you, and if somebody does not share that confidence, what they can know is nothing is done unless we have approval from our commander.”
Council Member Maria Tran asked which agency will be responsible for damaged equipment.
“This is actually written into the JPA,” Faust replied. “If equipment gets damaged or equipment gets used, whatever city that it’s used in will be responsible for those costs.”
Trans also asked how a combined SWAT team would respond to incidents happening simultaneously in Brooklyn Park and Brooklyn Center.
“That could conceivably happen. It’s not very common, I can’t think of a time that that’s ever happened, where we’ve needed to call a SWAT team in when we already have something going on in Brooklyn Park, but that could happen,” Faust said. “We would then have to call upon mutual aid, and we would most likely call one of our partner agencies that we have a relationship with to come in and help resolve that incident for us.”
“That doesn’t answer my question,” Tran replied. “If something happened, in two locations and the timing is very similar, very close to each other … does our police department prioritize our own city or another city?”
Faust said a situation like that is unlikely to happen, but a combined SWAT team would respond to whichever call came in first. ”I can’t really imagine a scenario where two situations would happen simultaneously,” he added. “I guess that, if that ever conceivably did happen, we would probably respond to the most serious of the two. Then the second incident would have to be stabilized by patrol officers, which always is going to happen regardless, and then we would call in mutual aid to assist at that second scene.”
Council Member Tony McGarvey asked if there would be a backup SWAT team. Faust said that it would be unlikely for all 37 members of the team to be deployed all at once, meaning the remaining officers could be available for other calls.
“Again, it’s very uncommon, I can’t think of a time that we’ve ever had to use two tactical teams in our city at the same time for different incidents, but it definitely could happen,” Faust said. “There’s several SWAT teams around that we would trust to call in for something like that.”
After further discussion, the Brooklyn Park City Council voted 5-0 to approve the JPA. Tran abstained from the vote and Council Member Amanda Cheng Xiong was not present for the meeting.
The Brooklyn Center City Council passed the JPA without discussion. It was approved with a 4-0 vote as part of the July 13 consent agenda. Council Member Kris Lawrence Anderson was not present for the meeting.
According to a BCPD spokesperson, the two agencies are actively working together on next steps now that both councils have approved the JPA — though an exact timeline for establishing the combined team is not yet in place.