Why do SWAT teams dress like thugs?

Recently SWAT teams have taken a lot of flak for incidents where innocent people have been killed. A common case goes like this: SWAT team breaks into wrong home. Home owner sees them and assumes they are trying to rob them and someone gets shot in the chaos. This is a fairly reasonably situation. If I saw these people in my house and I had a gun I cannot say that I wouldn't shoot:



They look like military commandos, or convenience store robbers, not police. If I was dressing up for a crime I would want to look pretty much the same. All black, with my face behind a mask. These are police officers however, they really should look like police officers.


If these guys broke into my house, I wouldn't shoot. It is fairly obvious what they are, and why I shouldn't be shooting them. Now, I understand that protective gear is rather important to the people who break into homes in the middle of the night, but there really needs to be more effort put into making these people look like police.