{"id":296031,"date":"2021-07-10T22:45:51","date_gmt":"2021-07-10T19:45:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/inside-the-elite-nypd-emergency-service-unit-for-nyc-disasters\/"},"modified":"2021-07-10T22:45:51","modified_gmt":"2021-07-10T19:45:51","slug":"inside-the-elite-nypd-emergency-service-unit-for-nyc-disasters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/inside-the-elite-nypd-emergency-service-unit-for-nyc-disasters\/","title":{"rendered":"#Inside the elite NYPD Emergency Service Unit for NYC disasters"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Inside the elite NYPD Emergency Service Unit for NYC disasters<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n

Detective Dennis O\u2019Sullivan vividly remembers getting the call: a man was terrorizing residents of an apartment building, preventing them from leaving,\u00a0and someone summoned\u00a0police for help.<\/p>\n

It was in 2019 and O\u2019Sullivan and other members of the NYPD\u2019s elite Emergency Services Unit responded \u2014 with no idea what was awaiting them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe decision was made for myself and two other guys to go in by the fire escape and grab him from behind,\u201d O\u2019Sullivan said. \u201cWe thought maybe he\u2019d have a knife. It turned out he was holding two kitchen knives and had eight or nine other knives on his person.\u201d<\/p>\n

When things go very wrong in the five boroughs, it\u2019s the ESU team that other cops call for a hand, a highly trained force of 500 officers who can tackle any emergency: building collapses, hostage standoffs, domestic violence situations, hazardous material.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They are the Navy SEALS of the NYPD \u2014 \u201cRenaissance men,\u201d as one ESU veteran calls them. They\u2019ve been taught by the best how to rapp<\/a>el from a helicopter, dive into murky waters, conduct a SWAT raid and handle emotionally disturbed people, known as EDPs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe always say cops have a front-row seat to what\u2019s going on in the world but in ESU we have a backstage pass,\u201d O\u2019Sullivan said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of us have specific skill sets, like we might be extra good at one thing like diving or rappelling,\u201d the Riverdale native told The Post during a ride-along with a reporter last month with him and partner Jason Egnaczyk.<\/p>\n

The two detectives, both 40, prowl the Bronx five nights a week in a squad of up to six officers, a Special Operations radio crackling in their patrol vehicle, two Colt M4 assault rifles in the back seat.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had one guy who worked as an underwater welder on an oil rig, so he\u2019s great when we have to dive. But Jason\u2019s good at everything. He just doesn\u2019t talk much.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ESU
ESU trainees practice repelling from an NYPD helicopter. <\/figcaption>
Matthew McDermott<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The two can find themselves in life-and-death situations. Saving despondent would-be jumpers is common. One partner will place himself in a harness and tie off on the nearest secure structure while the other anchors him and monitors the rope, they said.<\/p>\n

Soon they will welcome a new recruit.<\/p>\n

Chris Bamfo, who twice got turned down when he applied for a coveted ESU spot, was finally accepted and on Friday he graduated from the ESU training school.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

To make the team, Bamfo, 36, got up in the dark and drove from his Long Island home five days a week to Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn to what looks like a cross between a Disneyland for cops and the set of a disaster movie.<\/p>\n

It was there on the shores of Jamaica Bay that Bamfo, a police officer who previously worked at precincts in Queens, spent eight months crawling through fake collapsed buildings, apprehending dangerous EDPs played by other cops, and prying open an old subway car with the \u201cjaws of life.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

He also had to walk out onto what appeared to be a balance beam high in the sky.<\/p>\n

\"The
The NYPD\u2019s training facility at Floyd Bennett Field.<\/figcaption>
Matthew McDermott<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re claustrophobic or afraid of heights or don\u2019t like the water you\u2019ll never make it here,\u201d said ESU Lt. Keith Gallagher, 41, a former Army Ranger and Iraq War veteran who oversees the school. \u201cBut by the end of the training, you can do it all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bamfo, a Marine Corps vet who saw action in Iraq and Afghanistan, failed to crack the rigorous ESU admission exam twice before finally getting in last September. Of the 350 applicants for this year\u2019s training program, 35 were accepted, and 30 graduated.<\/p>\n

He and the other trainees were taught how to keep their cool at the \u201cTAC house.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The structure \u2014 officially the Training Ammunition Combat House \u2014 is built to resemble a shabby old apartment. It\u2019s where recruits are instructed on how to deal with indoor crimes, such hostage taking, domestic violence and EDPs who barricade themselves. The house, according to Gallagher, helps officers learn what to do in unpredictable situations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal is to slow down, break down the situation in a compartmentalized way and use non-lethal techniques as much as possible,\u201d he said. \u201cMany times these people (suspects or EDPs) aren\u2019t listened to and they need to be listened to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Any shooting that takes place at the TAC house involves only \u201csimunitions,\u201d or training cartridges made out of soap.<\/p>\n

Trainees must also negotiate through tunnels under a fake collapsed building while wearing a special breathing apparatus to make up for the lack of oxygen. The structure, just behind the old subway car where students learn how to disable a third rail, looks like a mass of Flintstonian rubble.<\/p>\n

All ESU officers are scuba and EMT certified and have extensive training in weaponry. They learn psychological techniques\u00a0at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe stuff I ended up loving at the school \u2014 the rope rescues and the scuba diving \u2014 was the stuff I didn\u2019t like at first or was nervous about,\u201d Bamfo said. \u201cBut mastering it all gave me an incredible confidence.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

All that training comes in handy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

So far this year, ESU has dealt with 214 barricaded suspects, 74 jumpers, 31 vehicle extrications \u2014 and 82,525 emotionally disturbed people, according to NYPD data.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, the unit resolved a police standoff with an unhinged man in the Bronx who had climbed on top of his SUV with a beer in his hand and fired a gun at a police van outside a stationhouse.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing about our Emergency Service Unit cops is that the more tense a situation is the more focused they are,\u201d tweeted NYPD deputy commissioner John Miller. \u201cThis de-escalation in the Bronx was no different \u2014 and the outcome was a safe one.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ESU
Chris Bamfo, who twice got turned down for an ESU spot, was finally accepted and on Friday graduated from training school.<\/figcaption>
Paul Martinka (2)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bamfo said he\u2019s looking forward to the \u201cbrotherhood\u201d and the \u201ccreative problem solving\u201d he sees as key to being in the ESU.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you make it through this course you know you achieved something great,\u201d Bamfo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd you\u2019ll give something back to the city.\u201d\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#Inside the elite NYPD Emergency Service Unit for NYC disasters” Detective Dennis O\u2019Sullivan vividly remembers getting the call: a man was terrorizing residents of an apartment building, preventing them from leaving,\u00a0and someone summoned\u00a0police for help. It was in 2019 and O\u2019Sullivan and other members of the NYPD\u2019s elite Emergency Services Unit responded \u2014 with no…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":296032,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/07\/nypd-emergency-service-unit-training-main.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[111601,106287,75242,5044,72032,72597],"class_list":["post-296031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-7-10-21","tag-disaster","tag-hostages","tag-nypd","tag-police-officers","tag-terrorism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}