In the wake of active shooter incidents in El Paso and Dayton, area police departments along with Orange County Fire Authority officials staged a “full-scale” active shooter incident at Cypress College.
According to OCFA spokesman Jon Muir, the training exercise held Aug. 9 had been scheduled for weeks in advance and was sponsored by the Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI).
Participating in the full-scale exercise along with the Orange County Fire Authority were Garden Grove Fire, Anaheim Fire and Rescue, and the police departments from Cypress, Buena Park, La Palma and Seal Beach, as well as California Highway Patrol and Cypress College Campus Safety Department.
Although no photos were taken, a graphic video posted by OCFA depicts the entire incident. It includes dramatic confrontations with acting shooters and numerous rescues of persons injured in the mock drill. (A link to the video has been posted on the Event News Enterprise Facebook page).
According to officials, the exercise conducted at Cypress College will help prepare law enforcement and fire departments to work closely together during anyreal-life active shooter incidents. “The recent events in El Paso and Dayton continue to emphasize the need to quickly protect victims from the threat and treat and transport the injured to hospitals as quickly as possible,” they said.
All Orange County law enforcement agencies and fire departments have been training together on active shooter response since 2011. This is one of many annual exercises held throughout the county to improve techniques and learn from the tragic incidents that have happened across the nation.
“It is difficult in fluid situations to get everybody on the same sheet of music,” said Cypress Police Commander Chris Reeve. He said the Cypress Police Department benefits from “having professionals who know what to do.”
An active-shooter incident is “something we hope never happens,” said Reeve, “but we have the people and the training in place so that we can respond if it does happen.”
According to Mike Sheehan, OCFA Battalion Chief, “responding to an active shooter incident is going to require a large response from both fire and law agencies.”
“We need to practice that training and continuing to do so provides us with an opportunity to work out the details to ensure that we are able to most effectively able to respond,” he added.
While coordinating such active shooter drills are incredibly complex, it is critical to “get this all together so that we can work on our communication and coordination.”
Further, said Sheehan, such training is necessary “so that we can affect the rescues and get the patients the care that they need and get them off scene as quickly as we can.”
To be effective in the chaos of an active-shooter scene “requires vigilance on our part to continue to go through this training and so we are prepared to operate under the stress and dynamics of an environment such as this.”
Finally, he said, “individuals who find themselves in an active shooter incident should try and run, exit the building to find a safe location. “If they are not able to do that,” said Sheehan, “they should look for a safe location, preferably behind a locked door and communicate their location to 911.”
This is one of many annual exercises held throughout the county to improve technique and learn from the tragic incidents that have happened across the nation.