The City of South Lake Tahoe Fire and Police Departments conducted a live “active shooter” training exercise yesterday at Lake Tahoe Community College. A second training exercise is scheduled for Monday, April 7th at Tahoe Valley Elementary School from 9:30 am to noon. We are advising community members that there will be shots fired as part of the training exercise, and ask that they do not call 911.
The purpose of the exercise is to give the South Lake Tahoe Police and Fire Departments the opportunity to work together to develop a level of preparedness for an active shooter type incident 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.
This 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 storyline will involve a single campus building and the scenario will require both law enforcement tactics and fire department tactics. The South Lake Tahoe Mobile Incident Command Unit will be utilized as part of the scenario including onsite dispatch.