Before deploying, a SWAT team will review the situation at hand. The officers will be briefed on the mission: the kind of mission (such as warrant service, arresting a suspect, hostage rescue, or barricaded subjects), the physical layout of the target (the architecture of any buildings involved, for example), any available intelligence on the target, and the actual tactical plan to be used. Following the initial pre-briefing, SWAT officers will then be assigned and staged by the tactical commander to their respective Areas of Responsibility (AOR) within the area of operations. Once assigned and staged, a SWAT officer will not leave his AOR for any reason unless ordered to do so through the directions of a SWAT supervisor or commander.

In a typical arrest mission, the SWAT team will attempt to move in unnoticed, if possible, to prevent the suspect from fleeing. Once on-site and in place, the team will attempt to resolve the situation as quickly as possible.

SWAT is very much reserved in terms of hostage rescue/barricaded suspect situations. The idea behind a SWAT mission is to leave with the fewest number of casualties possible. This involves incapacitating or restraining suspects rather than using lethal force at any opportunity. Although SWAT is equipped to use force, they generally keep casualties to a minimum, if possible, to bring suspects into custody.

In some SWAT call-up situations, stealth entry and movement techniques are used to conceal the presence of the SWAT officers. Stealth movement is used when an area is small enough to move through quickly but silently, or when there is no immediate threat to officer or hostage safety. However, when obstacles or building size prevent effective stealth entries, a team may force its way into an area using dynamic entry tactics if needed. The team would move in to arrest the suspect rapidly using violence of action and distraction techniques to confuse and startle the suspects. Oftentimes, the strike is so quick that the suspect is incapable of resisting in a significant manner.

Other missions require different tactics. In hostage rescue situations, the team will form a perimeter around the area, and call in negotiators to attempt a peaceful resolution. If the use of force is deemed necessary, then the SWAT team will attack to neutralize any threats to the hostages. Again, dynamic entry tactics are used to gain quick entrance to any building involved in the situation. Non-lethal flash-bangs may be employed in such dynamic entrances to temporarily blind and deafen all persons in a room for several seconds, providing a window of opportunity for the team to restrain or otherwise neutralize suspects.

Furthermore, some SWAT entry teams will use the "stealth to contact" method. This involves entering the structure in a stealth entry (a.k.a. stealth probe), but as soon as contact is made, the entry team will begin dynamic tactics.

Most SWAT entry missions are dynamic entries as this limits the amount of threat to the officers and offers the best chance of arresting the suspects without violence. Such missions typically use multiple employments of flashbangs and bang-sticks, CS gas, K-9 dogs, breaking of doors and windows, sirens, and shouted verbal commands to enforce compliance from the startled and shocked suspects.