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NYPD's elite unit trains for real world threats

  • Published
  • By David Moore
  • Army Support Activity-Fort Dix Public Affairs
JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J. --  Training for the real-world scenario or preventing it is paramount for New York City first responders, where the terrorist threat remains high since 9/11 World Trade Center attacks 11 years ago.

About 50 police officers, investigators, aviators, including its resident surgeon, of the New York City Police Department Emergency Service unit came May 16, 2013, to conduct field training and test their skills here in the event of a crisis.

The elite multi-disciplined unit personnel provides specialized support and advanced equipment to NYPD units in such areas as special weapons and tactics, hostage situations, water rescues, high angle rescues and emergency medical treatment. The teams spent a week of training on ranges qualifying on weapons, rehearsing different real-world different scenarios until the final day when they conducted a force-on-force culminating exercise to release hostages from a hotel using ground, air and medical assets.

Police officers and investigators trained at the U.S. Army Support Activity-Fort Dix Combined Arms Training Facility designed to offer structural facilities to practice and execute realistic scenarios similar to those officers or military personnel will face during a crisis. In this training it focused on dealing with an active shooter situation.

"This training event is all about movement, communications and the use of tactical medics in the wake of the recent Boston Marathon bombing," said NYPD Lt. Kenneth Beatty, ESU training officer in charge.

Dr. Charles Martinez, a surgeon and chief of tactical medicine with ESU, explained the training facilities being used allow for the medical treatment and care portion of the exercise to be pushed to a higher level.

"For example, the officer may be able to provide medical care in an open area, but more than likely they may find themselves operating in a tight space - a challenging task when they are wearing their gear and carrying a weapon," Martinez said.

"We want to instill in the officers if we can immediately control and stop blood hemorrhaging, the chances of survival are at the highest as a result of lessons learned from Iraq, Afghanistan and most recently the Boston Marathon bombing," he added.

As ESU officers were given the scenario, they established their plan, conducted safety checks. Some boarded the ESU helicopter or into the up-armored tactical vehicle known as the BearCat. Two rotations of forces gathered to fast rope onto a roof top or enter the building from the ground.

During the operation, the simulated chaos of machine gun fire from other buildings also ensued and there was even an officer reported as 'down' as a result of a gunshot wound. Under simulated fire, a team of officers' rushed to protect and treat the officers wound using a tourniquet to stop the bleeding. Then the officers evacuated the injured one to a safe environment using their tactical vehicle as a block with additional available officers.

While the training event certainly was designed using a script, officers said they could never get enough training in their field. The training reduces mistakes in real world events, NYPD Detective Robert Goldstein said.

"You can have a script for realistic training since it focuses on doing the correct individual technique way properly and develop your instinctive reflex" Goldstein added. "These scripts don't direct every turn in the building where someone who wants to do you harm is hiding - that's good. In the real world the criminal isn't working off a script."

The commander of the elite unit was also on hand to oversee the training, Vincent Giordano, a NYPD deputy chief, said the training area with its various different sized buildings, trains and other community government-like structures and commercial businesses.

"The capabilities to use our aviation and ground entry teams is a great realistic environment is always good since it does allows for an atmosphere of real life," Giordano said.