Shotgun Shells On Back?

[zzhawk]

There was a big standoff across the street from my parents house yesterday, SWAT deployed with a huge response. Attached is a picture from the newspaper, the SWAT Officer has shotgun shells in a carrier on his back. Any idea how these shells are intended to be deployed? Teammate behind you with breaching SG?

Swat2.JPG

[ST911]

Possibilities:

Segregates different ammo types, selection requires deliberate thought and action.
Mounted for use by teammate.
He thinks it's cool or saw someone else doing it.

[CRAMBONE]

I can kind of understand the segregation of ammo. Maybe have non lethal back there so you have to KNOW you are loading one of those rounds. Hopefully he is flexible enough to reach those.

And I have always heard the carry of "xyz" on the back for the teammates bs. My thoughts on that is they can carry their own shit I already have enough to tote.

[tarkeg]

Not only will those shells be incredibly hard to get to, that type of caddy is an "all at once" type. It holds six shells. If you take less than six, as soon as you move the remaining shells will fall out.

[cd228]

Can anyone tell what the officer's primary weapon is? That shell position would be a pretty difficult or time consuming way to reload your primary weapon.

It looks like he has a radio pouch and a cargo pouch on the back. I don't think he is planning on accessing that stuff with the vest on his back. I'm voting that the stuff is for their partner or CDI factor. I have seen IFAKs hung low on the rear of the vest being reachable by the user. YMMV.

[VARIABLE9]

Have never seen this config, however agree with everyone else's speculation thus far. LTL, teammate, cool factor. I am no shotgun shell expert, but I am leaning toward LTL because it may not be something you are rushing to reload or initial load (i.e. swap out to from Lethal).

[Chameleox]

From the looks of the rounds, they appear to be less lethal, or possibly breaching. Understanding, of course, that color isn't everything.

I recall some teams doing his about a decade or so ago with the 40mm sponge rounds. User up front fires, breaks the action, and exposes the chamber over his shoulder for the guy behind him to extract the round and load a new one from a pouch on #1's back. We tried it a couple times. It worked smoothly when the loader had just that one job to do. But it was a very narrow set for of circumstances where we found it practical.

Theory: guy in the front covers for a less lethal user behind him, who can fire over his shoulder and reload off of his back. The reloads would potentially be easier like this, since the carrier and the shells are right up by your face.
Caveat: this, like the "fight off your buddy's back" concept, would only work if the whole element has trained it to proficiency, and everyone is similarly equipped. Looking at the back panels and zip on/off assault panels that are still being made/sold, I guess some folks are still doing it, though maybe not for ammo. Didn't work for us at the time, but ours was a limited attempt at the concept. I don't know what this team's experience or philosophy is. If the OP has contact with this team or department, maybe he can ask them next time he sees them.