PLATTSBURGH — The St. Lawrence County board of legislatures voted at its Monday meeting to join the Northern Regional Special Response Team, joining several other North Country law enforcement agencies who currently make up the team.

Formerly known as the Tri-County SRT, the team is a specially trained tactical police unit that responds to high-risk situations throughout the North Country. On Saturday, NRSRT provided tactical support to apprehend suspects allegedly involved in a violent kidnapping in Tupper Lake. They were taken into custody without any reported injuries in the operation.

Over the years, NRSRT has responded to mission requests made by the State Police, Adirondack Drug Taskforce, Plattsburgh City police, the Drug Enforcement Agency, U.S. Marshals and the U.S. Border Patrol, according to Clinton County Sheriff’s Maj. Nicholas Leon, who commands NRSRT.

NRSRT can provide executive-level protection for high-profile officials or individuals who may have threats against them, and execute high-risk search warrants where suspects may pose a likely threat of violence.

The unit often provides stand-by service for large gatherings throughout the North Country, such as Saranac Lake’s Winter Carnival, the Tri-Lakes PRIDE event and the Franklin County Fair.

Generally, those other agencies first determine through their risk assessment procedures if there’s a situation where NRSRT might be needed. If so, they get in contact with Leon and brief him on the situation. If NRSRT is needed, Leon sends out the message to the group.

If they have sufficient advance time, he said they’ll first assemble as a group at their hangar in Plattsburgh. If it’s a more immediate situation, Leon might instruct members to head directly to the scene — with personnel stopping by the hangar individually to pick up what is needed. During an active operation, NRSRT works under unified command and retains control over the operation’s tactical aspects, according to Leon.

NRSRT was created in 2015 by Clinton County Sheriff Dave Favro, with Franklin and Essex counties subsequently joining. The unit also has personnel from the Malone and Ticonderoga police departments. Leon said with the addition of St. Lawrence County, the tactical unit will gain two members who are part of that sheriff’s department with precision rifle training.

“Bringing them onto the tactical team does increase our numbers and it allows us to respond,” he said. “Being a collateral duty team, there are times where members may not be in the area or available, so having a couple more people on the teams allows us to bring forth a full unit to respond to a situation.”

Leon said the team averages about 30 missions per year. While that may not be as frequent as full-time SWAT teams, Leon said the NRSRT’s members participate in the team on top of their regular duties as full-time members of the various law enforcement agencies that make up the department.

“For a collateral duty team, it’s pretty busy,” he said. “We will go anywhere that we’re needed within reason.”

Leon said it’s not just the team members themselves who make NRSRT possible, but other members of those departments who step in to play a supporting role. This often includes covering whatever shift or position an NRSRT member would normally be doing, so they can respond.

Leon said the people who choose to serve on NRSRT are going above and beyond.

“We tend to attract people who are very much fans of ‘Superman,’ — and all they want to do is save the world,” he said. “That’s really what it is.”

Leon said NRSRT is predominantly supported by grants, with each member agency assisting to search for and write grants that may cover equipment, gear or training needed by the department. Even with that, he said NRSRT members often have to dig into their own pockets.

“Unfortunately, we’re not a well-funded team, so the guys spend a lot of their own personal money to keep themselves well-equipped and moving,” he said. “There is a large personal investment for each member of this team.”

In addition to money, Leon said it’s a time-consuming endeavor. The reason is simple: being ready and able to respond to the most dangerous or high-risk situations that law enforcement handles requires a lot of training — between 16 and 20 hours per month for the NRSRT, sometimes more.

“As a part-time team, that’s a lot,” he said. “But, the national standard is 16. We try to go above that.”

Leon said the training was vast. The team prepares for waterborne incidents and is trained to respond if there’s an incident on a boat — such as the Lake Champlain ferries — or an island that’s only accessible by water. He said the team trains for nighttime operations, including the use of night vision goggles or being able to move as a unit through pitch black darkness.

The team also trains with state Department of Environmental Conservation Forest Rangers for wilderness search operations, and can respond to those, especially if the subject is thought to be dangerous.

Training covers how to use specialized technology that’s deployed in situations that are too dangerous to send a person into. The team is trained in how to operate drones and robots that can fly or move indoors to survey a scene, with infrared technologies, allowing for that when it’s dark.

There’s also close-quarters combat, self-defense and hostage rescue training. Leon said much of that training involves running through simulations with hostage negotiators, learning how to respond as hostage situations either escalate or deescalate — with the goal of doing everything possible to deescalate the situation. NRSRT also engages in debriefing around its operations and those of other agencies.

“We keep up to date with national trends,” Leon said. “We learn as much as we can from other agencies.”

At the end of the day, all of that time and effort comes down to a central goal: effectively conducting missions in a way that minimizes the risk of injury or death to everyone who’s involved.

“It’s that risk mitigation,” he said. “That is our main thing. Our team can operate in a way that reduces the risk and that’s really what the tactical team is about.”