kevinrichardeaton

the only country I know of that allows utilities workers to have emergency lights is Germany where the railways,electric & water all have a small number of bluelight equiped units certainly in the UK police,fire,ambulance,eod,coastguard are the only ones (i know of)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/unknownisland/sets/72157594410124621/with/4606886617/

not seen the vehicles first hand yet but will try and take some pics when I do , the armed units are also out patroling now also in some very nice Mercs

Found this on Flickr and thought I'd share it

funny you should ask British Transport Police are in the process of setting up a 100 man armed suport unit, so will have there own tactical team

these guys won't carry as only the driver s a police officer (yellow vest) the guys in orange are all civilian engineers who will work alongside the police, fire rescue and ambulance staff after 7/7 and the inquiry a few new units were setup to deal with mass casulty events in and around london

London Fire Brigade have USAR - Urban Search & Rescue

London Ambulance have HART - Hazardous Area Response Team

Met,City & BTP have under various names a CBRN response capibility and in the mets case the only non military EOD team in the country

this unit has been around in one form or another for years, perviously it was staffed totally by civilians with no Blue light authority, they got round this and the law by assigning a police driver and repainting the vehicles with the word police covereing the section of the legislation for "police purposes"

I thought I'd read that the unit had been disbanded just goes to show that you shouldn't believe everything you read

on a totally unrelated note if anyone knows where I can get one of them MTA ESU patches I'll love you forever

been away for a while but thought I'd pop back and share this with you

We've established a new partnership with Transport for London to allow their Emergency Response Unit vehicles to use flashing blue lights when responding to incidents on the Tube network. In a trial scheme the specialist unit that responds when incidents such as person under train or broken down trains cause a threat to the safety of passengers will become a police vehicle. It will travel under the same ‘Blue Light’ conditions used by police, ambulance and fire services. This means that it will be able to cut through London’s traffic more quickly, cutting response times and so enhancing passenger safety by reducing disruption and delays across the network.

Three ERU vehicles, which will operate from Camden, have been painted in BTP livery and kitted out with lights and sirens. They will carry engineers with specialist equipment and be driven by seven of our officers who will be working full time with the Unit.

Assistant Chief Constable Alan Pacey, who attended the launch of the trial at Canary Wharf station on Thursday 9 February, said:

"Passenger safety will be improved by using 'blue lights' to get engineers and equipment to the scene of incidents as quickly as possible.

"Stuck trains will be freed from tunnels more quickly, enhancing passenger safety. By getting the line moving sooner there will also be fewer crowd safety issues in and around stations."

When will the blue lights be used?

Use of the blue lights on the ERU vehicle will be subject to the same criteria as any other incident that police attend in that public safety must be at risk before they can be activated.

They will only be used when there is:

• Threat to life
• Serious injury to a person
• Use of or immediate threat of a use of violence
• Serious damage to property

its like with the police in london, they have started moving more towards silver/grey as they get a higher resale price for them, the older white onces went for a cheep price because they look like police cars (in the eyes of the public a vauxall thats white is an ex police car no matter what)

A police officer who was injured while chasing suspected robbers last Saturday has died in hospital.

PC Gary Toms died when his life support machine was switched off at an east London hospital, sources said.

The officer was a member of Scotland Yard's CO19 firearms unit.

He was critically injured while attempting to confront several suspects in a dead-end road in Leyton, east London, on April 11.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/P...spected_Robbers

as a kid I had a cat , one night someone thought it was be "fun" to tie a firework to his back legs and light it, he turned up with serious burns and we couldn't get him to come into the house he went missing the next morning and I never found out what happned to him- i can see why your ASPCA guys are all tooled up

ANPR is in widescale use in the UK most police cars have it its also linked into the Police national computer so if theres no tax,licence, driver is disqualifed or on another database it pings up on the screen

I think i'm right in saying certain areas have CCTV linked inot the database

I don't remember which forum it was, but I've seen this before. The guy who posted it, claimed it was owned by USSS as part of the Presidental security convoy.

most cars in the Met are crewed 2 up, armed response are all 3 up and then you have the vans which can be anything from single crewed for prisoner transport right up to a TSG with 8(I think) of the biggest uglyest scarists riot control experts on board

you'd be amased how many people you see with phone pinned to ear while driving, there have been a couple of high profile deaths related to it and people still don't seem to care

http://www.fifthalarm.net/nys-stuff.html

hope they're of use to you I came across them on google looking for something else

will you stop letting facts & common sense get in the way of bad journalism

its "nice" to know that its not just the UK that have idiots

I was once out with some friends when a drunk was being arrested, he asked the police "don't you have anything better to do" to which the copper replyed "yes lots but I'm enjoying this more"

isn't it more important that they do there job, never mind whats on the t-shirt they wear to the pub

anyway if you ask me they have some cool nicknames

If you TAZE the perp long enough anything in the pockets

will fall out while they do the chicken dance.

Sorry, I just had too! lol

sounds reasonable

I see the same thing on british shows, however they normally ask then" have you got anything on you that could injre me or yourself?" you'd be amased how many people turn round and admit to the knife or syringe in there pocket

I don't know if this is taught or just common sense but it seems to work

Preplanned & intimate searches tend to be done with latex gloves

no idea myself, My dad was involved in one way or another with fundrasing for the LFB since before I was born and he always called them that- i think its one of them strange brit things noone ever understands

even our underground have got in on the act and have 10 brand new shiny appliances

http://www.tubelines.com/news/imagelibrary...London_Eye2.jpg

I hope the admin don't mind but this site has excellent photos of various UK and Ireland emergency services vehicles everything from police, fire service to search & rescue

http://www.ukemergency.co.uk/

the sites not mine but I have spent far to many hours looking at photos on it

The Departments ESU unit is a full time tactical team assigned to the water supply. I am not a member of the unit so I can only list the training/job skills I know they have, there may be more. They are there for any tactical situation that is outside the realm of what the patrol officer can handle. They are also trained to perform several types of rescues, confined space, high angle rope, ice as well as swift water rescue. They are also trained in HazMat tactical operations, if the spill is of a criminal nature they are to clear the area prior to FD entering the scene. One of the biggest problems is that they are just as spread out as our patrol division causing a huge response time issue.

Dutchess Counties.

Thanks for the information,I find it amasing the differances between US & UK

The Department has a full time ESU Team, Marine Patrol, K-9 Patrol, and Detective Bureau. The Department currently employs only about 154 Police Officers for an area the size that is equivalent to the State of Maryland.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NYC_DEP_Police

I found this on wikipedia earlier and it made me wonder,what would there role be?

is it for chemical spills at treatment plants and such

PM me wereabouts and I might buy you a beer

you'd be surprised how stupid british criminals can be

Armed Response with 3 MP5 armed coppers crashed into by some div