Flashpoint is about the dramatic portrayal of an elite tactical unit, called the Strategic Response Unit (SRU), within a Canadian metropolitan police force (styled on the Toronto Emergency Task Force, Toronto being where the series is filmed). The SRU are tasked to resolve extreme situations that regular officers cannot handle including hostage-taking, bomb threats and heavily armed criminals. Even though they're backed with high-tech equipment with an arsenal of explosives, tasers, submachine guns, assault and sniper rifles, the SRU operators use intuition and judgement to resolve the situation.