A 25-year veteran of the police force, Laufer commands Team Four, one of six ETF gun teams operating round the clock, seven days a week. Each team has a sergeant and nine highly trained officers. Apart from their general tactical and combat skills, teams have snipers, trained negotiators, and bomb disposal experts. With their helmets, heavy bullet-proof vests, Taser stun guns and automatic weapons, it's like having nine Terminators show up at your door.

Sgt. Peter Laufer calmly maneuvers through the late afternoon traffic. But termination is not their goal. In fact, most incidents involving the ETF end peacefully. In more than 40 years of service, the ETF has killed only nine people, the most recent being at Toronto's Union Station in 2004, where an ETF sniper shot an armed man who was threatening to shoot a hostage.We watched Team Four train, we followed them to the Canadian Forces Base in Borden Ontario for the annual Swat Jamboree, we rode along as they patrolled the streets of Toronto and, best of all, we were there for the armed stand-off and a raid on a suspected drug dealer. No restrictions, no rules other than not revealing sensitive information like ETF radio frequencies and always hiding the identity of suspects.