Flashpoint

83

The police's “Strategic Response Unit” is called in particularly dangerous situations. Ed Dale's special operations team has to intervene in hostage-taking, shooting sprees or bank robberies, putting their own lives in danger. The SRU is tasked with resolving extreme situations for which regular police forces are not adequately trained and equipped: hostage taking, bomb threats and heavily armed criminals are common operations. With explosives, Tasers, submachine guns, assault rifles and sniper rifles as well as acoustic and visual surveillance and listening technology, the unit is the best equipment. Nevertheless, intuition, judgment and negotiation skills are among the first means of resolving the situation. The perpetrators are rarely “regular” criminals, but mostly ordinary people who are tempted into their actions by extreme situations.