ERT trains for high-risk situations

North Bay Police Service Emergency Response Team members storm the halls of the former Ecole publique Heritage on Lakeshore Drive Tuesday.

Following the Columbine High School massacre and 9-11 law enforcement agencies across the globe have changed how they respond to volatile situations and North Bay Police Service’s Emergency Response Team (ERT) is not exception. The team has one week of training in the spring and fall and this week they are training with members of the Peel Regional Police Tactical Unit.

“We have a very good rapport with Peel Regional Police both from our chief of police down to our Emergency Response Team,” explains Sergeant Mike Hunter.

Hunter says the Peel Tactical Team has been training NBPS ERT for 6 years now.

“They come up once a year and give us their expertise, their opinion as well as bringing in some of the new information that’s out there in the tactical world … cause changes periodically.”

This week’s training exercise will have local ERT officers review situations that deal with executing warrants high risk vehicle stops; witness protection, as well as search and rescue to name a few conditions officers come up against.

“Specifically what we are doing here is we’re going to be dealing with two types of services we provide,” states Hunter.

“One being rapid deployment, that being active shooter whether it be in a school or a business or in the community, and our response from a police side to that type of situation.”

“The other aspect we’re going to deal with is just some of our specific skills in regards to search warrant service, relation to executing those search warrants, arrest warrants that we would find also out in the community whether it be houses schools or business,” he adds.

Hunter says with a noted increase of hard drugs like crack cocaine and methamphetamine on city streets his team is averaging 30 to 40 calls a year, but he notes the violence of the situation has remained relatively even.

“It’s getting busier all the time we’re having a larger influence from down south as well as other areas of the province where we are finding an influx of drugs into our city and it’s compounding itself to larger calls reserves for us.”

“I think the level of violence is still the same we’re finding as far as the weapons being used on the street whether it be guns or knives really hasn’t changed changes as far as an increase in incidences.”

“When we get involved the weapons and violence is already there.”

Training continues to the end of the week.