Critical Incident Response Team

Critical Incident Response Team
Active 2004 - Present
Country Australia Australia
Branch Victoria Police
Role Law Enforcement
Size 187 officers[1]
Part of Security Services Division
Garrison/HQ Melbourne

The Critical Incident Response Team (CIRT) are teams of officers from the Victoria Police Force Response Unit (FRU) available to provide assistance to general duties police, including a negotiator capability, to resolve high risk incidents utilising specialist tactics and equipment. CIRT teams patrol metropolitan Melbourne 24-hours, seven-day-per-week, ready to rapidly respond to incidents in Melbourne, and if necessary, in regional Victoria.[2]

Overview

A Critical Incident Response Team member at a siege in Belmont, Geelong on 27 September 2012.

In March 2004, the FRU launched the CIRT concept with two teams to provide specialist assistance to general duties police with a primary focus on tactical support and negotiation capabilities supported by a greater range of less-than-lethal options, and as a consequence to relieve the elite police tactical group the Special Operations Group (SOG) from attending incidents not within their call out criteria.[3][4][5][6] The primary role of the FRU subsequently changed to providing CIRT teams whilst continuing to maintain the negotiator capability integrating this with CIRT.

The concept is similar to the United Kingdom police armed response vehicle (ARV) that patrols ready to respond to provide specialist assistance. An individual CIRT is referred to as a Van due to their use of this vehicle, similar to use of the acronym ARV. This concept was first considered by Victoria Police during the review of the Special Operations Group as part of Project Beacon conducted in 1995.[7] Each CIRT consists of a Sergeant and three other officers, one of whom is a trained negotiator.[3] The FRU now operates three Vans.[8][9]

The majority of CIRT deployments are related to mental illness, for example between 2010 and 2011 of the total 685 call outs, 324 of these (47%) were mental illness related, with 29 percent of these mental illness call outs including drug and alcohol use.[10]

The FRU is part of the Security Services Division of the Transit & Public Safety command within Victoria Police, which also includes the SOG, and has a reported strength of 187 officers, including nine female officers, who receive 6 weeks of initial training at the police academy.[11][1]

The FRU has three intakes each year to join CIRT, applicants are required to meet minimum fitness requirements and once qualified have fitness tests every six months.[1][12][13]

The television police drama Rush produced by Network Ten from 2008 to 2011 was inspired by the Critical Incident Response Team concept.[14] In 2005, the Office of Police Integrity recommended that regional Victoria have a CIRT presence with the The Police Association reported to have earlier requested that Vans have a presence across the state.[3][6]

Role of the CIRT

The primary function of a CIRT is to provide a rapid specialised response to high risk incidents, such as:-[15]

The incidents pose a threat to general duties police or are difficult to resolve due to violence or other dangers. Any general duties police supervisor can request assistance from the FRU for a CIRT who rapidly respond if approved by higher ranking CIRT officers. CIRT has specialised training and is equipped with more "less than lethal" options to resolve an incident than general duties police.

An incident may fall within the call out criteria of the SOG such as a firearms incident. The SOG has significantly higher call-out criteria than a CIRT, such as requiring Commissioned officer approval, and with Vans already patrolling, this enables CIRT to rapidly respond to the incident whilst awaiting SOG arrival with CIRT providing a cordon and containment.[16] On arrival of the SOG, CIRT can provide assistance to the SOG such as perimeter containment.

The FRU has a Tasked Operations team of CIRT officers, who receive further training in Tactical Arrest Options to conduct level 2 forced entries for general duties / detectives to execute search warrants on premises or to conduct high risk arrests which are below the scope / deployment criteria of the SOG.[11]

The FRU continues to offer a variety of other support and specialist services such as Close personal protection, the provision of trained and qualified police negotiators and equipment and the provision of security for protected witnesses.

Victoria Police formed a new unit, the Public Order Response Team (PORT) in 2011, that provides rapid response to public order incidents to assist general duties police in Melbourne or throughout Victoria. Prior to the formation of PORT, a CIRT was the only rapid response available to assist general duties police.

Equipment

CIRT teams are always on the road patrolling metropolitan Melbourne in vehicles enabling them to rapidly respond, originally vehicles were Mercedes-Benz Sprinter vans, now vehicles are Volkswagen Transporter vans.

CIRT officers have a range of specialised equipment and weapons in their inventory ranging from ballistic and tactical vests, helmets, riot shields, Minuteman ballistic shields, Tasers, bean bag rounds, gas masks, ladders, breaching tools and various oleoresin capsicum (OC) delivery systems.[4][17]

Officers are armed with Smith & Wesson M&P .40 handguns, Heckler & Koch UMP .45 submachine guns and shotguns. Reportedly, the UMP is to be replaced by a SIG Sauer assault rifle in .300 AAC Blackout cartridge.[18] Originally, a CIRT officer had the tactical option of a handgun and/or a shotgun before equipping with the Heckler & Koch UMP.[19]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Behind the Line - Critical Incident Response Team". 3AW Radio. Youtube. 24 July 2014. Retrieved 26 July 2016.
  2. ↑ "Specialist Roles". Victoria Police. Retrieved 26 July 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 "Review of fatal shootings by Victoria Police / report of the Director, Police Integrity" (PDF). Office of Police Integrity. November 2005. Retrieved 26 July 2016.
  4. 1 2 "Critical Incident Response Team - The new look FRU" (PDF). Victorian Police Association Journal (June 2006). Retrieved 26 July 2016.
  5. ↑ Silvester, John. "Police to launch anti-terror vehicles". The Age. 1 March 2004. Retrieved 27 July 2016.
  6. 1 2 Hodgson, Shelley (2 March 2004). "Our new front line in the fight against terror". Herald Sun.
  7. ↑ Silvester, John (3 June 1995). "Ideas to counter terror". The Sunday Age.
  8. ↑ "Police trim a third off terror unit". The Age. 8 April 2010.
  9. ↑ "SOG bears the brunt of police shortages" (PDF). Victorian Police Association Journal (May 2010). Retrieved 26 July 2016.
  10. ↑ "Policing people who appear to be mentally ill" (PDF). Office of Police Integrity. 2012. Retrieved 26 July 2016.
  11. 1 2 Loncaric, Anthony. "High-risk arrests". Police Life - the Victoria Police magazine (Autumn 2014). Retrieved 26 July 2016.
  12. ↑ Kaila, Jon. "Tough? These women are CIRTS". Herald Sun. 11 March 2012. Retrieved 26 July 2016.
  13. ↑ Ahern, Christin. "Critical incident cops". Today Show. 7 April 2016. Retrieved 27 July 2016.
  14. ↑ "Rush - About the Show". Channel Ten.
  15. ↑ CCI 04/09 – Critical Incident Response Team (CIRT). Chief Commissioner’s Instruction. 22 May 2009.
  16. ↑ "Behind the badge". Police Life - the Victoria Police Magazine (August 2007). Retrieved 26 July 2016.
  17. ↑ Connor, Amanda. "In full force". Police Life - the Victoria Police magazine (August 2009). Retrieved 26 July 2016.
  18. ↑ Dowsley, Anthony (25 March 2017). "Victoria Police special operations, critical incident teams get new guns". Herald Sun. Retrieved 3 June 2017.
  19. ↑ Rolfe, Peter. "Siege and hold-up could be linked". Herald Sun. 1 January 2012. Retrieved 26 July 2016.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.