Introduction
The Bergen County Police Department SWAT Team provides the primary response to high risk incidents involving hostages, barricaded suspects, anti-sniper situations, and specialized support in the riot control environment. All members of the Bergen County Police SWAT Team come from within the ranks of the Bergen County Police, and perform the SWAT function in addition to their other day to day duties within the department. The SWAT Team was formed in 1975 to provide the highly specialized skills necessary for a modern, critical incident response. To date the SWAT Team has responded to more than 325 high risk incidents.
The SWAT Team has responded to some of the most serious hostage and barricaded suspect incidents in the United States, and has a record of outstanding performance. Although the unit has conducted well over 325 operations, several stand out as unique. The Ridgewood Post Office incident on October. 10, 1991, involved a heavily armed gunman who was in possession of explosives, machine guns, large quantities of ammunition, and deadly cyanide gas producing compounds. Another highly critical incident occurred on December. 23-24, 1993 at the Jade East motel in South Hackensack involving a heavily armed gunman who held his common-law family hostage for 15 hours. Both of these incidents and hundreds of others, of extremely high risk, have been resolved successfully by the SWAT Team.
The SWAT Team Today
Currently the Bergen County Police Department SWAT Team maintains the ability to respond to high risk incidents, throughout Bergen County, at any hour of the day or night, regardless of weather. The unit is on a 24-hour call-out basis at all times. In addition to response to critical incidents, the SWAT Team conducts regular training within the department, and assists other agencies such as the Newark SWAT Team, and the FBI SWAT Team in training functions. The Team is equipped to handle a wide array of critical incidents including modern threats such as initial response to terrorist incidents, and scenarios involving the use of chemical or biological weapons. The SWAT Team maintains a close working relationship with a wide variety of other agencies in and around Bergen County, including many Federal Agencies.
Special Projects
The Bergen County Police Department, through the SWAT Team, has several cooperative projects which yield a very high quality level of service to the citizens of Bergen County without incurring significant cost. In many cases these special projects are provided free to the citizens of the County.One such project is the Emergency Trauma Response Team (E.T.R.T) which is a cooperative project between the Bergen County Police Department and Hackensack University Medical Center. A cooperative agreement between the Medical Center and the County Police has led to the first Tactical Medical Response Unit in the County. The Medical Center covers the cost of all salaries and medical equipment. The E.T.R.T responds with the SWAT Team and provides an extremely high level of medical care directly at the scene of a crisis. The E.T.R.T consists of four physicians, one nurse and, five paramedics.
The Bergen County Police SWAT Team is tasked with the responsibility to support the Countywide Rapid Deployment Force, which provides large scale crowd and riot control capabilities. Special skills provided to the R.D.F. include hostage rescue, specialized support equipment, and an anti-sniper capability.
The Bergen County Police Department SWAT Team is a highly professional, well-equipped and experienced unit ready to respond to any future high risk law enforcement incident in Bergen County. The unit is training now for contingencies which could occur well into the next millennium.
Services ProvidedTHE SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) team will provide highly trained hostage negotiators and tactical teams for situations such as these:
Hostage situations Barricaded suspects High-risk warrant executions High-order dignitary protection Special assistance during riot or crowd control situations Who to Call
Call Bergen County Police Headquarters:646-2700
A fully-capable tactical unit can respond anywhere in the county, at any time, in less than an hour. A rapid-response element of the team can usually be on-scene in substantially less time if the situation so requires.
What to DoIn all hostage, barricaded suspect, and similar situations, take steps to ISOLATE and CONFINE the situation:
Set up an inner perimeter to confine criminal actors. Pay careful attention to officer-safety.
Set up an outer preimeter to isolate the problem and exclude non-emergency personnel. This may include traffic-diversion, traffic control, and crowd-control.
Evacuate civilians from within the outer perimeter.
Set up a preliminary command post and staging area in a safe place (See the section on Bergen County Communications for assistance with establishing a command post.)
