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LAPD Counter-Terrorism And Special Ops Gather For Biennial Inspection From Chief Charlie Beck

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — LAPD's SWAT team, K-9 units and other elite divisions gathered at Dodger Stadium Wednesday for inspection from their top commander.

LAPD Chief Charlie Beck checked out the department's Counter-Terrorism and Special Operations Bureau, including the SWAT team, the bomb squad, the elite Metro division, the mounted unit, K-9 unit with bomb dogs, search dogs, the dive team, the air unit and other divisions.

Every two years, the specialized personnel conduct a formal inspection with their chief

Beck told KCAL9's Randy Paige during the event the bureau works invisibly but effectively.

"It's hard to quantify a negative but the city remained safe during major events during regular operations also," Beck said.

The LAPD says there's never been an incident so big as to call all of the special units into play at the same time. They are deployed as needed to confront the existing threat.

"We always try to match the deployment versus the threat," Beck said, noting, "The reality of Los Angeles is [that it's] a very under-policed city, so we're trying to match resources to the need. So we flex the resources assigned to counter-terrorism based on the level of threat."

A crane was needed to get everyone into one group picture - with the hope no threat is ever big enough to require them all to come together for the real thing.

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