Emergency Response Unit is the police tactical unit of the Garda Síochána. The unit was a section of the forces’ Special Detective Unit until 2017. It specialises in weapons tactics, counter-terrorism, execution of high-risk missions, crisis negotiation, hostage rescue and close protection.
About Garda Emergency Response Unit in brief
Emergency Response Unit is the police tactical unit of the Garda Síochána. The unit was a section of the forces’ Special Detective Unit until 2017. The Garda ERU provides the highest tier of firearms response to Irish law enforcement. It specialises in weapons tactics, counter-terrorism, execution of high-risk missions, crisis negotiation, hostage rescue and close protection. It is understood to have more than 100 full-time officers on active duty. All ERU operators are trained in handling semi-automatic pistols, shotguns, submachine guns, personal defense weapons, assault rifles, sniper rifles and less lethal weapons. In the aftermath of the 2001 September 11 attacks in the United States, the ERU became a member of the ATLAS Network, a European Union organisation consisting of 32 special police units across Europe. The ERU operates from a number of secret bases nationally. The identity of the unit’s officers is highly sensitive, and when giving evidence in court, they are not named, appear behind a curtain and may have their voice altered.
A number of tactical teams are on duty at any one time, with usually at least one officer on duty in training or out in the field. Officers work 6 days a week, with a minimum of 8 hours break between shifts, and many officers work 6 hours a day. The Emergency Response Unit was formed on 15 December 1977 following an agreement on international terrorism at the European Council meeting in Brussels, Belgium in July 1976 on responding to terrorism. In 1984, STF members underwent training with the Army Ranger Wing forming the Anti-Terrorist Unit. The Anti-terrorist Unit was renamed to the Emergency Response unit in 1987 to better reflect its role. In 2017, operational command of the ERu was placed under the Special Tactics and Operational Command (STOC) to better. reflect the GardA’s mandate to provide firearms support and training under one command. More recently, ERU has been deployed to trouble spots in Dublin City and Limerick City to tackle gun violence, resulting in a 92% decline of firearms offences related to organised crime.
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This page is based on the article Garda Emergency Response Unit published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 15, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
