Marietta Police have adopted a policy allowing its SWAT teams to detonate a new explosive device capable of taking down doors, walls or windows.

The “explosive breaching device” hasn’t been used yet, said Marietta Police Chief Dan Flynn, but city police officers will be ready if the need ever arrives.

A SWAT team could use the ploy if an active shooter was barricaded inside a school or during a hostage-rescue operation, Flynn said, when “time is of the essence.”

It could also be used to serve a warrant, according to the new standard operating procedures approved by the Marietta City Council....