Marking 25 years since the Branch Davidian siege near Waco, Tx., the Austin American-Statesman reviews the episode that exposed shortcomings in policy and tactics in the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Both agencies made major changes after the siege to better prepare for critical incident responses. The death toll included four ATF agents and more than 75 Branch Davidians, including 21 children. The initial ATF raid on the compound led to a 51-day standoff involving FBI negotiators. Authorities believed the Branch Davidians had a stockpile of weapons, and ATF obtained a search warrant for the compound as well as an arrest warrant for the group’s leader, David Koresh. On Feb. 28, 1993, nearly 100 agents moved in to execute the warrants.
“The biggest problem we had was internal,” said Byron Sage, the lead FBI negotiator. “We brought it on ourselves. We created a crisis within a crisis.” After Waco, to improve communication and cohesion among the different elements involved in critical incidents like the Texas siege, the bureau created the Critical Incident Response Group. Notably, the agency’s tactical and negotiating teams now train together. The group houses five sections: the FBI’s aviation program; crisis management and command posts; bomb technicians and the hazardous devices school; all the behavioral analysis units; and the tactical section, composed of the Hostage Rescue Team, negotiators, the tactical helicopter unit and support. “The negotiators are occupying, living in, training with, exercising with, and operating with the tactical operators every day. We’re housed in the same place,” said David Sundberg, chief of the Tactical Section and commander of the Hostage Rescue Team. “So, not just at a critical incident, but at all times before, we are working together.”