Why did Sonny Bonds choose to become a SWAT officer, outside of his own city? Aside from his back story, Sonny has a habit of doing some things rather recklessly in PQII and III. In II, he has the option to raid a motel room, where Bains allegedly was holding up in, without the aid of a SWAT team, guns down the terrorists himself, and search the sewers without proper equipment OR back-up (justified in which Marie may be in there with Bains and Sonny did not want to waste any time waiting). In III, he will go on a high speed car chase against a man who may have been the one to stab Marie, have to commit a potentially unlawful act in order to learn about his partner's affiliation with Bains' brother, and to do that, he will have to clog a toilet to distract the janitor to gain entry in the women's locker room, and the climax is Sonny raiding a crack house while receiving help in opening the door but not waiting for a team to show up. Needless to say, he is probably a thrill seeker, and naturally opted to enlist in the SWAT unit outside of Lytton.
His profile in SWAT 2 also notes that he's learning with the LAPD in order to start a proper SWAT unit in Lytton. He had to go outside the city because the SWAT teams in Lytton aren't doing things right!
Sonny changes sidearms every game in the original trilogy. The switch from the .357 to the 10mm coincides roughly with the real life switch from revolvers to automatics, but Sonny's 10mm has some serious issues with its sights in PQII that he switches weapons again for the third game.
