South Lake Tahoe Police and Fire Departments Participate in Active Shooter Exercises

In order to be trained and prepared to handle active shooter situations, the South Lake Tahoe Police and Fire Departments took part in exercises at Lake Tahoe Community College on Thursday, April 3. They will continue the exercises on Monday at Tahoe Valley Elementary.

Both training sessions take place at school campuses that are on Spring Break so students and classes are not disturbed. The purpose of the exercises are to give the departments an opportunity to work together in order to be prepared should an active shooter incident take place within the city limits.

Practicing for a scenario of this nature offers opportunity to enhance cohesiveness and cooperation in response practices and also provides an opportunity to practice the recently created SLTFD and SLTPD Hostile Event Policy. This is also an opportunity to determine the ability for both departments to communicate effectively during a high stress and critical incident. Further, this scenario will simulate a campus emergency and will utilize tactics unconventional for an emergency evacuation.

Monday's exercise will involve South Lake Tahoe personnel only as responders to the exercise scenario. The intention is for SLTFD and SLTPD to train together on the Hostile Event Policy, which is a joint response into a “warm zone” capitalizing on the skills and expertise of both agencies in one unified, tactical movement.

The South Lake Tahoe Mobile Incident Command Unit will be utilized as part of the scenario including onsite dispatch.