Abbreviation NYPD ESU | Formed 1920 | |
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Common name NYPD Emergency Service Unit Motto "At Your Service... Anything, Anytime, Anywhere!" Legal personality Governmental: Government agency Operations jurisdiction* City of New York in the state of New York, U.S. | ||
The New York City Police Department Emergency Service Unit is a component of the NYPD Citywide Operations Bureau's Special Operations Division. The unit is uniquely trained and equipped to perform tactical (Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT)) and technical rescue duty for other department elements. Members of ESU are cross-trained in multiple disciplines for police and rescue work. In addition, its Canine Unit helps with searches for perpetrators and missing persons. ESU is always on patrol (all three tours, 365 days a year) with 10 Heavy Rescue trucks, each ordinarily manned by a police officer and a sergeant, and often more than twice as many smaller Radio Emergency Patrol vehicles containing two ESU police officers. There are also two or more citywide patrol sergeants or lieutenants in unmarked vehicles on duty at all times to supervise ESU operations where needed. These are called "U-Cars" on the NYPD radio, for example, "U-5".
Contents
Field organizations
The 10:Emergency Service Squads (ESS) are divided geographically as:
Emergency Service Squads (or Trucks):
ESS-11 is not a patrol squad but a vehicle manned by trainers and support staff assigned to ESU headquarters at Floyd Bennett Field and can respond to nearby incidents or as back-up to other Emergency Service Squads when required.
Lieutenants/Sergeants are assigned as citywide patrol supervisors to supervise multiple "trucks"(squads). They patrol as either U-5 (Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island), or U-4, (Manhattan and the Bronx) and respond to major incidents within their assigned boroughs for the tour.
The ESU Canine Unit maintains 36 dogs-handler teams which include three bloodhounds and several dogs cross-trained in cadaver recovery. The ESU canines are an integral part of the US-TF1 Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) Team as deployed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
The Apprehension Tactical Team or "A-Team" is ESU's full-time tactical element. It was originally stood up as a unit in 1989 in order to supplement the ESU's sometimes overwhelming requirement to perform raids throughout the city. A-Team members strictly perform tactical missions which, on a day-to-day basis are typically High-Risk search warrants. The A-Team is widely considered to have the highest operational tempo of any US tactical team, sometimes performing as many as 800–1000 missions per year. The team can be called upon to support any unit within the NYPD, federal law enforcement agencies or outside police departments upon official request for tactical entries. Members of the Apprehension Team are also utilized as tactical and firearms trainers both within ESU and to other NYPD units. The A-Team has participated in many of the city's most notable criminal take-down operations of recent decades many times without recognition. Members of the team are recruited from within ESU, based on team needs and assignment to the team is highly selective. A-Team members are still required to maintain all of their periodic ESU certifications and proficiencies, and must be able to support the ESU on any type of operation should the need arise.
Vehicles
The Emergency Service Unit currently utilizes numerous vehicles including:
Recruitment
The personnel selected for ESU become highly trained, elite members of the NYPD who perform rescue, SWAT and other high risk tactical, counter-narcotic and counter-terror operations.
There are minimum time-in-grade requirements before an NYPD officer can apply to transfer to ESU. Police Officers must have a minimum of 5 years on the job with a minimum annual rating of 3.5. Supervisors in the rank of sergeants and lieutenants must have 2 years in rank before being assigned to ESU. In addition, all ESU candidates must be approved by a group of current ESU members to ensure that they will integrate into the unit successfully.
Casualties/line of duty deaths
ESU lost more members (14 out of 23 NYPD officers) than any other NYPD unit during the World Trade Center attacks on September 11, 2001.
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