Chelsea police host regional partners for active shooter training
The Chelsea Police Department hosted numerous regional public safety partners on Saturday morning for a full-scale active shooter training.
The training took place at the Mary C. Burke Elementary Complex. Chief Keith Houghton said the training is critical to ensuring all public safety agencies are aware of the role they would play if an incident were to occur.
“We need to be prepared for real-life events which are sadly happening all over the country,” Chief Houghton said.
According to emergency management director, Steve Staffier, that also means knowing how to work together.
“If the event really happened, we want to make sure we’re unified in our response, unified in our decision making, and the operations through an active shooter, hostile event,” Staffier said.
With cadets used as actors playing students and potential threats, first responders got the closest experience they would have to an actual incident without anyone being in harm’s way.
Chief Houghton said it’s a timely training considering recent events around the country.
“We’ve had incidents at schools, we’ve never had thankfully an active shooter, but obviously with what happened in Minneapolis, there’s been schools in Nashville, we never know. We need to be prepared. It’s our duty to respond quickly to save lives,” Chief Houghton said.
On a typical day, the massive presence of police officers, firefighters, EMS personnel, and emergency vehicles all at an elementary school would be a very concerning scene. However, on Saturday, it was all in the name of preparedness.
“It’s all about training, being better prepared in the future for an event that we hope never happens,” Chief Houghton said.
This is the department’s third level in active shooter training. The initial trainings only involved Chelsea Police and Chelsea Fire, but the Saturday training encapsulated every agency that would respond to a potential active shooter event, including Massachusetts State Police, Revere Police, Everett Police, Winthrop Police, Everett Fire, Revere Fire, Winthrop Fire, Cataldo Ambulance, Federal Air Marshal Service, Metro North Regional Emergency Communications Center, and other regional partners.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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