Tactical Response Group

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Unofficial issue TRG patch

The Tactical Response Group (TRG) was a tactical police unit of the Australian New South Wales Police similar to SWAT. The acronym TRG has been used by several different Australian States police departments at various times and is still used by the Western Australia Police.

The name Tactical Response Group is still used incorrectly in the media and by various other groups occasionally when referring to either NSW Police State Protection Group officers or Operational Support Group (OSG) riot officers.

1 History
2 Mission
3 Organization
4 Equipment
5 Current status
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] History

The NSW Police Tactical Response Group was created in 1981 and although similar to the existing Special Weapons and Operations Squad (SWOS), it was originally created to deal with riots, civil disturbance and other tactical situtaions to assist General Duties Police. The TRG units were divided around the State on a Regional basis with each Region having a small full-time section and larger part time component, similar to the way in which SWOS was organised.

[edit] Mission

TRG officers on deployment

The TRG’s charter was very similar to the SWOS, the difference being SWOS’s counter-terrorist role which the TRG was not trained or equipped for. Nor was it originally intented to take on such duties. Effectively having two such tactical units was doubling and overlapping resources. The official role of TRG was to deal with the following:

Arrest of armed offenders on raids of premises occupied by dangerous offenders
Escort and security of VIPs
Barricaded/armed offender situations
Siege/hostage situations
Surveillance of criminal activities
Witness security operations
Security of Corrective Services establishments during industrial disputes/riots
Armed escort of offenders in custody
Civil disturbance and riot control response
Tactical and manpower assistance to general duties police as required
Bomb search and appraisal
Attending major public protests and demonstrations
Assisting with searches for evidence, people, property and drugs and canvassing witnesses during large-scale investigations
Clear cells, transfer inmates and perform other security duties during industrial disputes at the state's prisons

[edit] Organization

Apart from its small full-time components the majority of officers were part time operators called upon when needed from their usual assignements. Most of the officers assigned to TRG were from General Duties (patrol) backgrounds, whereas almost all officers assigned to SWOS duties were from Detectives backgrounds. This created underlying tension and rivalry between the two groups as it was common for detectives to believe themselves more superior to general duties officers. The reality being though that TRG officers usually spent more time on actual tactical deployment than those assigned to SWOS duties. SWOS also had a habit of 'poaching' experienced TRG training officers for their own ranks into SWOS.

[edit] Equipment

TRG officers were routinely armed with their standard Police issue Smith & Wesson .38 revolvers or .357 Smith & Wesson revolvers on specilaist issue. Bristol Type body armour was worn along with PASGT style US military kevlar helmets. TRG officers also tended to wear standard NSW Police uniform and not the specialist black tactical overalls that SWOS were issued. Remington 870 shotguns of various types/configurations were also commonly used as well as various types of chemical munitions such as CS gas and assorted riot protection gear.

[edit] Current status

Both SWOS and the TRG units were dissolved in 1991 with a completely new full-time tactical unit being created by the NSW Police known as the Tactical Operations Unit of the State Protection Group, commonly referred to as simply being the SPG. The SPG TOU does not deal with riots/civil disturbance as its preserve is high risk tactical operations and counter-terrorism. Riot control and civil disturbance in New South Wales is handled by the full-time Police Public Order and Riot Squad (PORS) and supported by the part time Operational Support Group (OSG). Neither PORS or OSG are equipped for tactical high risk operations such as the defunt TRG was, they handle the other roles of the former units charter while the SPG TOU is responsible for the high risk tactical roles.