The New York Police Department (NYPD), the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) on Sunday staged and conducted a simulated active shooter scenario on a school campus in Brooklyn.
The exercise was organized around a scenario in which multiple active shooters with improvised explosive devices (IEDs) storm their way into the Leon M. Goldstein High School, which is located on the Kingsborough Community College campus.
Police Commissioner William J. Bratton said the exercise enabled the NYPD, first responders, and DHS to demonstrate and improve their response to an active shooter situation.
“We hope that these skills and equipment are never needed, but we know that we must be prepared to respond in a moment’s notice,” said Bratton. “This drill allows the department to test the coordination skills between our elite Emergency Service Unit, our newly formed Critical Response Command and Strategic Response as well as our precinct patrol personnel. Today’s training will help us be even more prepared.”
The exercise also provided the opportunity to test existing and emerging technologies in an operational setting. DHS Under Secretary for S&T Dr. Reginald Brothers said the department’s role in the active shooter drill was to assess which tools would perform well in an active shooter scenario.
DHS S&T offices participating in the exercise included Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency, Explosives Division, First Responders Group/National Urban Security Laboratory, the Capabilities Development Support Group, and the Research and Development Partnerships Group.
Brothers explained, “Analyzing video footage from the exercise, combined with gaining responders’ feedback to determine what worked – and what needs work – informs our efforts to better equip responders like the NYPD and FDNY so they may be as prepared as possible when they are facing high-pressure, challenging situations.”
The technologies evaluated included:
SOCET GXP – A geo-spatial intelligence tool that uses imagery from commercial, satellite and tactical sources to identify and analyze ground features.
Mutualink – a technology that enables interoperability of voice, text and radio.
Crowd Evacuation Software – modeling software that shows the time required to evacuate a facility and identifies potential issues that could arise during the evacuation as well as corrective actions for mitigating such issues.
Unmanned Aerial Systems Software (UAS) – modeling software that allows the user to model threat vectors, launch points and potential distances that are possible during a UAS attack.
“Our city’s preparedness level improves with each of these realistic exercises designed to test our response to difficult, dangerous scenarios we must be ready for,” said Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro. “Joint training with the NYPD has never been more collaborative and cooperative, and it’s critically important to an effective response to an active shooter incident.”
