Special Investigation Team

Background

In 1960s, the increase of serious criminal cases such as aircraft hijacking, piracy and bombing became a serious problem in Japan. And the kidnapping case of Yoshinobu Murakoshi, only four years old child, raised significant questions to solve these kind of cases. In this case, Hachibē Hiratsuka, a legendary detective, sent the criminal into the capital punishment, but it was too late to save the victim.

It became clear that traditional criminal investigation systems were sluggish and outdated for these new-style, rapid-tempo, and sometimes lethal cases. As a response to these problems, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department (TMPD) established the SIT unit within their Criminal Investigation Bureau in 1964. These detectives were well acquainted with new technology and special tactics to track and capture the criminals quickly and accurately. At the beginning, the name "SIT" came from an acronym of its romanized Japanese unit name, Special team of the First Investigation Division (捜査一課特殊班, Sousa Ikka Tokushu-han). But later, as its expansion to a section, Sousa Ikka Tokushuhan-Sousa-Kakari (捜査一課特殊犯捜査係), it became an acronym of its English name, Special Investigation Team.

This idea achieved a great success, so in 1970, the National Police Agency (NPA) requested the establishment of these kind of units for other Prefectural Police.

Organizations

All unit are established in the First Investigation Divisions of each Prefectural Police Departments. These units are generally local-based, so organizations (including their unit names) and equipment are varied. Among them, the Special Investigations Team (SIT) of the TMPD and the Martial Arts Attack Team (MAAT) of the Osaka Prefectural Police are the front-runner, so in hostage cases in rural areas, the NPA order these units to dispatch reinforcements to the relevant Prefectural Police. These urban units are platoon-size, but some rural units are only fireteam-size, so in case of SWAT operations, these unit can be reinforced by detectives of Mobile Investigation Units (機動捜査隊, Kidō Sousa-tai), primary reaction units for initial criminal investigations.

For manhunt missions, detectives of these units are well acquainted with many technique and technology such as telephone tapping, surveillance, and crisis negotiation. And in order to restrain violent offenders quickly, they also have tactical capabilities. In addition to standard service handguns (.38 Special caliber revolvers such as New Nambu M60, or .32 ACP caliber semi-automatic pistols such as SIG Sauer P230), some units are equipped with large 9×19mm Parabellum caliber semi-automatic pistols (Beretta 92 Vertec, for example) and submachine guns (Heckler & Koch MP5 or MP5K PDW).

Counter-terrorism operations are the affairs of the units of the Security Divisions, such as Special Assault Teams (SAT) or Anti-firearms squads, so these SWAT-capable detectives are mandated for law enforcement missions against heavily-armed criminals except terrorists. However, in some rural but well-versed Prefectural Police like Aomori, these detectives can form a counter-terrorism task force together with uniformed officers and riot specialists.