The Police Commission has approved a set of policies and procedures for guidance in Newtown's participation in the Danbury Regional Emergency Services Unit (ESU), a special weapons and tactics unit comprised of police officers from Newtown, Danbury, and Brookfield.

Since the ESU was formed in August 2014, the ESU has come to Newtown twice to handle emergencies that required more than a typical police patrol unit response.

The ESU went to Oakview Road last January to resolve a situation involving a suicidal out-of-state man who was threatening violence. Also, the ESU went to Dusty Lane last November to resolve a situation in which a resident was threatening violence.

Police Commission members on August 2 approved the ESU policy and procedures statement, which augments the unit's lengthy operations manual.

The ESU is designed to aid member towns in the containment, de-escalation, and control of situations that are beyond the response capabilities of regular police patrol units. Such cases include hostage situations, barricaded people, sniper situations, high-risk warrant service involving the apprehension of wanted people, active shooters, bomb threats, VIP protection, and terrorism, among other situations.

The ESU policy covers subjects including the authority and supervision of the unit, the procedures to be used in organizing an ESU response, reports on ESU incidents, and compensation to ESU members for training and for incident response.

Commenting on the ESU, Police Chief James Viadero said, "The team is a valuable asset to our agency. Our six officers are part of Danbury's team, and [the ESU] affords us the ability to mobilize a well trained and equipped unit in volatile situations."

Newtown also has a police detective attached to the ESU to serve as a negotiator, when needed. Overall, the ESU has approximately 25 members.

The police chief added, "The equipment utilized and level of training that the team possesses provides us the ability to use options that would not have been available prior to our participation.

"Emergency service units are instrumental to law enforcement in today's ever-changing environments. In most instances, it provides law enforcement the ability to safety resolve an incident without having to utilize force. Without such teams, patrol officers would be forced to employ methods of resolving an incident that would not only put them at extreme risk, but expose others to unnecessary danger and risk," Chief Viadero said.

"If not for this cooperative effort [with Danbury and Brookfield] it would be extremely difficult and expensive to field our own team," he said.

"In today's liability-conscious society our ability to use such a team enhances our ability to limit liability in the handling of volatile situations. The resources available provide us with a whole host of other options to safely resolve a volatile situation that were not previously readily available," Chief Viadero added.