re: This Ulvade police press conference is awful

Even in large cities the chief of police is almost always a political animal/appointee. There may be extremely capable officers in the swat teams, but they don't usually call the shots. Not unlike the military.

Look at the Chicago police chiefs. They have all been appointed by the increasingly incompetent mayors. They are largely despised by the rank and file. In major events, the big cheese or one of his/her/they/thems appointed henchmen/women/persons will be in charge. That means in the incident command world, control gets transferred until it's some big kahuna running the show. If you act outside of orders you get fired/demoted. Which should have been worth 8t in this case. But it's easier to go with the flow, not make waves, stay safe, go home alive, and put in 20 for that sweet pension and a gig at another department. The BORTAC dudes, who are legit hard-core, ended the bureaucratic stasis.

It's the whole ICS mindset, bring in the $750,000 command trailer and have meetings before acting.

It was supposed to have changed after Columbine. Clearly it hasn't.

btw, does anyone have a list of all the agencies that were there, and when they arrived? It's often easiest "safest" to delay action until command can be transferred to the next bigger fish.