Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Public Safety topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Mission Viejo police review multiagency active-shooter exercise; highlight communication gaps and rescue coordination
Summary
Police Chief Ivins summarized a June multiagency active-shooter exercise at Saddleback College that involved local police, county fire and campus agencies; after-action findings praised contact teams and rescue-task-force coordination but flagged rushed sweeps, delayed safe corridors and inconsistent plain-English radio use.
Chief Ivins briefed the council on a large, multiagency active-shooter exercise at Saddleback College this summer, describing the scope, participating agencies and lessons learned. The exercise used volunteer actors and a "red team" adversary to create complex scenarios; participating agencies included multiple municipal police departments, the sheriff’s department, Orange County Fire Authority and Saddleback College Police.
Ivins said evaluators praised contact teams for locating and neutralizing threats, effective use of the rescue task-force concept and good incident-command performance. The after-action report also identified improvement areas: in some sessions contact teams moved too quickly and disrupted team formations, establishment of safe corridors for rescue was occasionally delayed, follow-up with evacuated volunteer victims was not always completed, and plain-language radio use was inconsistent across agencies. "Communication is always gonna be a challenge," Ivins said, and recommended continued cross-agency training and emphasis on plain-English communications during joint responses.
