Recently UCLA conducted a mock campus shooting (Source: Daily Bruin, 8/11/2008, UCLA simulates campus shooting) as part of a “training exercise that included more than 300 members of the Los Angeles Police Department and fire department, university police, FBI and members of the city’s SWAT team. More than 100 students volunteered playing the role of injured students.”
This was a good example of multiple first responder agencies collaborating on a single university campus to learn how they would work together in the event of a real emergency. First responders often conduct training exercises on their own, but this joint effort gave each group the opportunity to learn from each other, as well as gauge if its emergency response practices are synchronized across the agencies. It also allows the university to test its emergency preparedness plans and determine what areas need improvement.
Overall, more colleges and K-12 schools should conduct emergency preparedness training exercises to learn from their mistakes and determine areas of risk that they have yet to address. Although training exercises do not necessarily need to be as large as the one at UCLA, it is valuable to work with the local fire department and law enforcement when conducting an exercise. Additionally, these exercises are excellent ways to test the effectiveness of a school’s technology implementations, such as network video and access control. For example, did an access control system work as designed and/or did a video system provide monitoring coverage to assist first responders? Network video could also be leveraged in a training exercise by reviewing video after the event to determine if people acted appropriately according to the emergency plan.
Does your school conduct emergency preparedness training exercises? Do you leverage your technology to assess your performance in a crisis?