Emergency Response Team (ERT) - BC RCMP
On this page
The Emergency Response Team deals with situations where extreme danger/firearms are above the ability of detachments or other policing partners. Team members are highly trained and are specialized experts in weapons and a variety of tactics.
ERT members respond day or night, in all types of terrain, locations and weather conditions. When there are multiple calls in one day response is prioritized according to threat.
ERT team members’ skills include
- Aircraft interventions
- CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear) incidents
- Covert surveillance and intelligence gathering
- Hostage rescue and evacuation
- High-risk searches and arrests
- Marine interventions (armed ship boarding)
- Penetrating blockades and strongholds
- Rural tracking operations
- Resolving incidents involving armed and barricaded persons
- Serious crime arrest warrants
- VIP and witness protection duties
ERT members go through extensive training and requirements in order to become members. In addition to possessing advanced tactical skills, members must also possess the self-discipline to function effectively in physically and psychologically challenging environments for extended periods of time. ERT operations can take place on land or at sea, both within or outside British Columbia.
ERT members can
- support major cases that are cross-jurisdictional in nature (eg: crime planned in one municipality, committed in another, while evidence is disposed of in a third).
- address, operate, and coordinate operations across municipal boundaries acting as a single cohesive team.
- provide expert advice to fellow police on weapons.
How do they operate?
Management of BC RCMP’s ERT teams is based out of provincial RCMP headquarters in Surrey, BC.
Lower Mainland :
The Lower Mainland District Emergency Response Team (ERT) is the largest team of its kind in Canada. Operating 24/7, the Lower Mainland’s ERT is an integrated unit covering 29 RCMP communities and the municipalities of Delta, New Westminster and Port Moody.
The team is a group of highly trained officers and technicians with specialized response capabilities and equipment available to a community where the risk is such that a safe resolution is beyond a local agency’s expertise and capacity. This important relationship with the 32 communities ERT serves, greatly enhances public safety and security.
The Lower Mainland’s ERT responds to potentially violent and dynamic incidents in a unique geographic area covering 30,969 square kilometres from Pemberton to Boston Bar and south to the United States border.
Rest of BC
In Northern BC, Vancouver Island, and Southeastern BC the ERT Teams are based out of centralized locations. Some team members are full time, and when ERT is needed the response is coordinated with other specialized resources (like dogs).
- Date modified: