EU NTN beefs up frontline officers' response capability
Emergency Unit New Territories North (EU NTN) carried out a tactics training exercise, codenamed "Metalshield", with a view to bolstering frontline officers' tactical skills and response capability to deal with an "Active Shooter" incident.
An "active shooter" incident involves an armed person, or persons, who has used life-threatening force, or poses an imminent threat of using such force, on other persons and continues to do so with unrestricted access to more victims. Life-threatening force refers to using lethal weapons such as firearms and knifes.
The training exercise, conducted at the former Queen's Hill Camp in Sheung Shui, was divided into two parts. The first part simulated a real-life scenario where heavy casualties resulted from knife attacks on pedestrians by a former psychiatric patient suffering from a relapse. The second part simulated an emergency situation in which two gunmen seized more than 10 customers in a goldsmith's shop as hostages and kept on shooting, following an abortive armed robbery.
In response to an emergency call, EU officers arrived at the scene, split into small groups and launched a rescue and arrest operation, using bullet-resistant shields and MP5 submachine guns.
After the exercise, the officers found the ballistic shields suitable as part of the gear for frontline officers in terms of size and weight. The shields introduced by EU NTN also served as another tactical option for protecting the officers as they advanced in small groups, thus rendering their tactics more flexible and effective.
All the training programmes of "Metalshield" had been devised with the aim of enhancing the capability of frontline officers to respond to incidents involving a mass casualty and violence.
At the invitation of EU NTN Superintendent Mark Ford-McNicol, officers from Police Tactical Unit Headquarters, Emergency Units of other Regions, Special Duties Unit, Counter Terrorism Response Unit and Weapons Training Division attended the exercise as observers.
At the debriefing session, officers examined the tactics they had used and shared their observations of the exercise.
Officers
of Emergency Unit New Territories North in action during their Exercise
"Metalshield"