The City of Elmhurst, working in conjunction with Elmhurst College, conducted a series of public safety training exercises on the college campus the week, July 26th though July 28th, 2016. Members of the Elmhurst Police Department, Elmhurst Fire Department, and Elmhurst College Security participated together in several joint training events over the three-day period.

The objective of the exercises was to train police and fire personnel in best practices when responding to active shooting-mass casualty events. Elmhurst College Security personnel, DuComm 9-1-1 dispatchers, and civilian volunteers contributed to the realism of the training. Each training event consisted of scenarios involving the apprehension of violent offenders, rescue of injured victims, and overall incident command. Emphasis was placed on the rapid deployment of responders to save lives.

The City’s public safety departments perform several training drills each year to further ensure that the community is safe during a crisis. Many of these trainings involve working with community partners on crisis situation scenarios and evacuation drills in order to strengthen the partnership between Elmhurst’s public safety agencies and Elmhurst civic organizations. This type of training is valuable to all emergency responders involved.