Emergency Task Force (Toronto Police Service)

The Emergency Task Force (ETF) is the police 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, 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.

The ETF is under the command of the Specialized Operations Command under Public Safety Operations, Specialized Emergency Response.

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.

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 can 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.

Three of the TPS's specialized units compose the ETF. These include the special weapons teams (tactical), the explosive disposal unit (EDU), and the emergency response unit (ERU). The ERU provides specialized equipment for the ETF, including high-powered lights, crane, and a mobile command post.

In a medical situation, Toronto EMS tactical paramedics in body armour work along with the ETF.

The ETF maintains a close working relationship with other police tactical teams of the Greater Toronto Area, including the York Regional Police Emergency Response Unit (ERU), the Durham Regional Police Tactical Support Unit (TSU), and the Peel Regional Police Tactical and Rescue Unit (TRU).