At least to a layman not at all versed in firearms, armed police responses in the UK look a lot like SWAT teams in the US and feel similarly intense, but perhaps there are material differences here. I’m genuinely not sure.
Headline notwithstanding, nothing in the article implies the armed police forced their way into the home. Rather, the spokeswoman appears to imply that armed officers were present as a precaution but did not engage, which is consistent with the neighbours' comments.
It's definitely unclear, but there's also no evidence from the article that the armed police were not among the officers that "stormed the address," as the article states. They were also visible outside, and it would be unusual to see police with rifles in the UK (or the US, for that matter) so it makes sense that neighbours noted that, but the article title as you said points in the direction of armed officers raiding the home.
To be clear, my point is not to draw a false equivalence between armed police raids in the UK and the US. I would, however, say that the problem of appropriately responding to a potential armed threat isn't exactly solved in either country, if that's even possible.
> "No action will be taken against the occupants of a Hemel Hempstead home that was raided by armed police after a mystery phone call."
> "One witness described armed officers going inside a home shortly before putting two people inside the home in handcuffs and in the back of a police car."
This one may be more appropriate: https://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/news/11238632.armed-police...
At least to a layman not at all versed in firearms, armed police responses in the UK look a lot like SWAT teams in the US and feel similarly intense, but perhaps there are material differences here. I’m genuinely not sure.