THE BERGEN COUNTY POLICE CHIEF’S ASSOCIATION
MUTUAL AID COMMITTEE
RAPID DEPLOYMENT FORCE
The
R.D.F. was formed in 1994 under the authority of the Bergen County Police
Chief’s Association. The unit, which is
comprised of officers from every Police Department in Bergen County, provides
Municipal Police Departments with support in the event of large scale civil
disorder, or large scale disaster. The
unit can provide assistance for any scheduled or emergent type event as deemed
necessary by the Chief’s Association.
The
R.D.F. has been called into service several times, and been placed on high
ready alert several more. The unit
has assisted Cliffside Park P.D. and Fairview P.D. during the World Cup Soccer
Finals with civil disorder, the Bergenfield P.D. with civil disorder at “The
Rink”, Lodi P.D. with the Napp Chemical Explosion disaster and Wallington
P.D. with the Farmland Dairy Strike when it became violent. More recently, the R.D.F. was used during the
attacks of September 11, 2001 to secure key locations in Bergen County and
assist with security at the George Washington Bridge.
The
R.D.F. is currently comprised of about 180 dedicated and motivated
officers. They pride themselves on
military type discipline and appearance.
The supervisors and operators train together 3 to 4 times annually. Unit members are trained in crowd control
tactics and formations as well as arrest/rescue team tactics. Several members are trained as Unit Chemical
Agent officers, and are trained to deploy bulk type O.C., (Pepper Spray), and
CN Gas, commonly referred to as tear gas, both by grenade and projectile, using
the 37 mm gas gun.
The
unit is also fortunate to count among its members, several paramedics and
EMT’s. Their first priority would be to
care for injured police officers. They
may, however, be required to assist injured arrested parties or victims of
disaster until further medical assistance can be obtained.
The
Unit is very well equipped. The original
equipment including uniforms, helmets, gas masks, shields, medical kits, O.C.,
GN gas, arrest kits, etc., was paid
for by The Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office from confiscated funds.