Significant Incident Training For Authorities

Law enforcement experts say knowing "how" to respond when there's a significant incident is as important as how quickly you respond. That's why members of Metro Police and area fire departments have just gone through a three day course called critical incident management training.

It may look like they’re just playing with toy cars and trains - but they use a mockup of a real city for police, fire and EMS commanders to learn how best to deploy their resources in response to a major incident. It's designed to be as realistic as possible...the tension reflected on the participant's faces. Star Cpl. Sean Wilson says, “You're standing there and literally you have to make decisions based on what you have and you don't know what's gonna be thrown at you next.” And just like in life - it's often the unexpected. In Thursday’s scenario an initial call of a barricaded gunman morphed into a possible explosives situation and then a major hazmat scene.
Normally during a significant incident - commanders would be assessing the situation and moving resources around using pins on a map - being able to see it laid out in 3-d for them, they say, makes a world of difference. Star Cpl. Wilson says, “It's different than sitting there in class and doing it in a textbook - you come out here - you see the police cars, you see the streets that you have to cover. You see the buildings that have to be evacuated.”

These are scenarios that luckily don't occur that often, so training to be prepared when they do is invaluable. Critical Incident Trainer Vince Faggiano says, “Whenever we look back at an incident - we have all the information - the solutions are really easy, but as you can see in the scenario we ran - they sometimes have to make decisions without all the information…this type of training keeps their skills sharp so that if they are faced with that they can use those skills effectively.”
Metro police have purchased the model city used in today's training and will use it to continue training for personnel throughout the department and with cooperating agenices.