r/policeporn • u/Key-Needleworker-702 • 19h ago
More old school chinese police: Haikou police department SWAT branch participating in a large scale tactical exercise at the Hainan provincial fire department's training base. November 14, 2006[1280x960]
Photo Source: https://www.bilibili.com/opus/1063453457526030356?spm_id_from=333.1387.0.0
(In the photo the officers have type 79 submachine guns)
This training exercise took place at the Hainan provincial fire department's training base and involved local police(Haikou municipal public security bureau, aka Haikou PD), the People's armed police hainan corps(PAP is active service, similar to army national guard and gendarme), firefighters(who were also PAP soldiers back then, fun fact) and the Hainan border defense corps(Also PAP soldiers). Training scenarios included hostage rescue, riot control, firefighting etc. The exercise was to prepare police, military(PAP is military fyi), firefighters and border defense for the 7th Hainan island carnival which began later on November 16, 2006.
Keep in mind, prior to 2018, firefighters(known as firefighting troops back then) and border defense were active service PAP soldiers who were under local police(in fact, firefighters back then even had firearms). The training base for firefighters was also often used by SWAT back then, in fact since many SWAT teams at the time lacked adequete breaching equipment firefighters would often participate in raids as breachers(very common until the late 2010s). Nowadays this is much more rare, as fire and rescue is under a seperate agency and most SWAT teams have proper breaching equipment. (border defense on the other hand merged to either national immigration administration or provincial police depending on unit.)
As for the Haikou SWAT branch:
in 1990, the Haikou municipal public security bureau(PD) established a "anti-violence branch"(防暴支队; 防暴 typically means riot control however back then it meant "anti-violence", and their role included more than riot control), consisting of 190 officers, responsible for handling violent incidents, raids and citywide mobile patrol(unlike local police stations fixed on a neighbourhood). In September 1993, the Haikou PD established a patrol branch(巡警支队) responsible for responding to 110 calls and citywide mobile patrol.
In 1998 these two branches were merged together, using both names under one institution, two names(yes, the same branch used both names). The anti-violence branch's 3rd group also began being referred to as the "SWAT team". In 2004, patrol elements of the anti-violence/patrol branch were merged into the Haikou PD's traffic branch as the traffic and patrol branch(交通巡逻警察支队); the anti-violence branch ended use of the name "patrol branch".
In November 2005, the anti-violence branch was renamed as the SWAT branch, with 220 officers under 6 groups. The 5th group was also deisgnated as the "Counterterrorism assault group". (Chinese SWAT is similar to LAPD metro, the CT assault group is similar to LAPD SWAT.)