The Emergency Task Force (ETF) is the tactical unit of the Toronto Police Service. Created in 1965, it is mandated to deal with high risk situations like hostage taking, emotionally disturbed persons, high risk arrests, warrant service, and protection details and crowd control. The Emergency Task Force is also responsible for responding to any terrorist incidents that occur throughout the City of Toronto. History The Emergency Task Force was created in 1965 after being known as the Riot and Emergency Squad which dealt with riots and crowd control issues. Over the years the unit has grown considerably and crowd control has been undertaken by the Public Safety Unit which falls under the control of the Public Safety and Emergency Management command. Description The Emergency Task Force currently comprises 82 officers from all units who are tactically trained. There are seven Special Weapons Teams consisting of 10 officers each. The teams are on-call 24 hours a day, every day of the week. Each tactical team has a team leader, assaulters, snipers, bomb technicians, and a negotiator. All team members are trained as assaulters, and thus are able to perform any necessary tasks requiring force. The negotiation team consists of the two ETF Staff Sergeant supervisors. If a situation is not resolved by a member of a Special Weapons Team, who is a trained negotiator, the negotiation team will be called in to take over the negotiations. In more complex calls involving suicidal, homicidal-suicidal, or violent emotionally disturbed individuals, a forensic psychiatrist, who has been on the negotiation team for the past 22 years, can be called to the scene to advise the negotiators and/or incident commander. The unit is located in Toronto, in a building that was built in 1989. It contains: meeting rooms two shooting ranges a rappelling tower an exercise room a large garage to house the unit's specialized vehicles Three of the TPS's specialized units compose the ETF. These include the special weapons teams (tactical), explosive disposal unit (EDU), and the emergency response unit (ERU). The ERU provides specialized equipment for the ETF, including high powered lights, crane, and the mobile command post. The teams train at their Don Mills station, as well as at CFB Borden, a Canadian Forces (CF) base approximately an hour and a half drive north of Toronto. The unit also trains with members of the CF's counter-terrorism unit Joint Task Force 2 (JTF2),