Unit. Lyle Rodabough, now the commander of the department's planning and research bureau, joined the SEU as an officer in 1975. Police departments all over the country were creating SWAT teams, following Los Angeles' lead after the Watts riots of 1965.

"We had some good street cops, some tough old sergeants, but training was few and far between," he recalls. "We came up with a sniper rifle for each officer, but it wasn't the right caliber. In the beginning, they struggled."

A couple of tragic incidents here, including one involving a man who killed his wife and daughter after holding them hostage, convinced police administrators of the need for a special squad, Rodabough says.

"When I was a young sergeant, if you had a barricade, it was yours. You had tois all about training. For these guys, the phrase "practice makes perfect" is not a cliché, it's a lifeline.

"We generally don't get surprised," says Pete Wechsler, the SAU's training sergeant for the past five years. Before that, he spent four years as an SAU squad leader. He teaches officer survival and tactical operations to police departments and other organizations all over the country. He gave firearms training to the bodyguards of the Saudi royal family.

Wechsler's training regimen for the SAU ranges from regular "shoot house" practices to complex scenarios staged in vacant buildings, often based on real-life situations that they think could have been handled better. In the past few months, among other things, they've practiced neutralizing terrorists at a Tempe business park and jumping from the skids