State police deem emergency preparedness drill a success (Daily Local News)

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State police deem emergency preparedness drill a success

While students have the day off, first responders practice their life-saving response

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

By LAUREN MCCORMACK, Staff Writer

ATGLEN — More than 75 law enforcement officials participated in an exercise Friday that simulated a gunman in the halls of a school.

State police coordinated the drill with help from Parkesburg and West Fallowfield police, the county Department of Emergency Services and Cochranville Fire Company.

The drill took place at the Octorara Area School District Building, and teachers and district administrators participated. Students were off from school that day and did not participate, said state police Trooper Corey Monthei.

"Our training was focused on a few different scenarios we created, and we were dealing with hostile subjects within the school setting, including an active shooter — somebody in the act of doing harm in the building," Monthei explained.

This was the first such exercise in Chester County "in some time," Monthei said. A similar drill was conducted about a year ago in Lancaster County, Monthei recalled, and State Police Troop J members from Chester County participated in that exercise. The drill was coordinated by Troop J, which has stations in Lancaster and Chester counties.

The exercise was coordinated so emergency services officials can be prepared for the worst and was not in response to any particular incident in the county, Monthei said.

"Nothing other than maintaining our readiness," he said. "It's just something we like to do at every opportunity, try to exercise our people, exercise our troopers and just refresh our tactics and our practices."

Among the participants was Beau Crowding, the Chester County Department of Emergency Service's deputy director for fire services.

Crowding said the Department of Emergency Services brought along two of its mobile units, the Comm-1 trailer and the Incident Support Team Trailer. Comm-1 is a mobile communications station that also can host a roundtable conference at the scene of an incident. In addition, a 911 Center dispatcher is housed within Comm-1 so law enforcement officials don't have to keep calling the center. It also allows the incident commanders access to the Internet and to telephones.

"We bring that conference room atmosphere to the scene," Crowding said. "Putting a map on the trunk of a police car doesn't work very well."

Crowding said the participants from the school district thought the exercise was realistic.

"From listening to a lot of teachers and administrators, they said it was intense and as real as it could be," Crowding said.

Both Crowding and Monthei said they were very pleased with the results of the drill.

Crowding said the drill allowed the Department of Emergency Services to have a plan in place should a similar situation arise. In addition, it allowed law enforcement officials to become familiar with people from the school district and vice versa.

"My overall thing is getting to know the people for when the incident really occurs," Crowding said. "We used that day to put a plan in process. When it does occur it's going to be seamless."

Monthei said he hopes police are able to conduct similar exercises with different school districts, though time and manpower constraints make it difficult to plan.

"I would say it was an overwhelming success," Monthei said. "It was mutually beneficial for us and for the law enforcement involved. It allowed our commanders to get a feel for where we stand as far as training."

To contact staff writer Lauren McCormack send an e-mail to lmccormack@dailylocal.com.