The La Porte Police Department announced Thursday that after a year of going over the logistics and purchasing of the equipment, they are reinstituting the Emergency Response Team (ERT).
The department says that it’s been nearly 15 years since they’ve had a trained and deployable ERT. This was a collaborative effort with Mayor Tom Dermody, Chief Paul Brettin, Sgt. Justin Dyer, and Specialist Adam Jaskowiak.
This week, the selected members that were chosen after a rigorous tryout are being trained and instructed by Bruce Weiler of Shadow House Tactical. The team is made up of eight LPPD Officers and one LaPorte Firefighter (team medic). The department says the training that the Team underwent was very detailed and aimed to develop the necessary skills to respond to a critical incident.
After this week’s training, the training will continue monthly and the team should soon be ready to deploy as an asset to the City of La Porte. Mayor Dermody and Chief Brettin were out at the range to observe some of the drills that the Team was working on.