The Department of Correction's Emergency Services Unit is the elite, tactical team the Department relies on during emergencies that rise above the level any individual facility has the capability to respond to. A part-time division with only 17 members up until as recently as 1995, the ESU today has 114 staff members assigned to it and is on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The primary tool of the ESU has been the TSO, or Tactical Search Operation, which has made ESU so key in helping the Department achieve its unprecedented record in reducing violence levels in recent years. During a typical TSO, a team of ESU officers enters a jail to assist the facility in maintaining order and retrieving any contraband materials in the possession of inmates.

ESU's Rapid Response Team is on call to conduct daily jail search operations and respond to any crises 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  In such cases, teams made up of a minimum of ten Rapid Response officers, plus one commander, respond to heightened security alerts on the Island, such as an inmate escape attempt or potential inmate riot situations.

With their own separate training center, ESU officers receive highly specialized training in the use of Chemical Agents as an alternative to physical confrontations, and in the use of defensive Electronic Immobilization Shields. Training also includes Search and Mobilization, Barricade Response, Tactical Formations, and Firearms, among other areas. Mandatory physical training guarantees that ESU officers will always meet the challenge during a crisis.

ESU's Security/ Intelligence office also assists the Department's Special Operations Division in monitoring and safeguarding the security of Rikers Island.

ESU also receives assistance from another Special Operations Division unit, the Canine Unit, consisting of 17 specially trained officers. The unit currently includes 16 dogs; seven patrol dogs, six narcotics dogs, and six bloodhounds; each trained from about one year to assist on tactical search operations, searches for contraband materials, and to aid in high-risk crisis situations that might arise.

The Emergency Services Unit currently maintains three Utility Vehicle Trucks, which are designed to transport ESU personnel to the site of an emergency and provide the necessary tools needed for resolution of crisis situations.

The Emergency Services Unit, the Department's 24-hour-a day crisis management team, is designed to handle any emergency at a moment's notice.