By Barb Matson

LESA CERT Exercise; courtesy Pierce County Department of Emergency Management

On August 12th, members of LESA’s Communications Emergency Response Team (CERT) manned the radios for a full-scale active shooter exercise held by TPD at the Tacoma Mall. This exercise allowed officers, SWAT, hostage negotiations, bomb techs and rescue units the opportunity to test their skills and equipment. Three tactically trained dispatchers reported to the Mobile Command Unit (MCU) in the mall’s parking lot and ran exercise communications.

The scenario:On a warm August night, two gunmen attempt to rob Zales Jewelry. The robbery goes bad and the men begin randomly shooting in the area between Macy’s and Forever 21. Employees and shoppers are fleeing and some are hiding in stores. The first arriving officers from TPD and surrounding jurisdictions form shooter teams and make entry. One team actively engages one of the shooters while the second shooter barricades himself in Pit Row, taking shoppers and employees hostage. During the incident, a backpack inside the mall is discovered to have an explosive device and a vehicle is discovered in the parking lot and it has a bomb inside. The scenario required 100 volunteers and included members of special needs populations so officers would have the real life challenge of evacuating these individuals.

LESA CERT Exercise; courtesy Pierce County Department of Emergency Management

The CERT dispatchers deploy into the field with laptops that are equipped with live CAD. The benefit of this type of team is that they remove the critical incident radio and phone traffic from the Comm Center, allowing “business as usual” to flow smoothly in the Center. These dispatchers are trained in tactical dispatch and ICS/NIMS and work alongside the Incident Commander and his support personnel.

LESA’s CERT deploys all year long to work gang emphasis, DUI details, Party Patrol, and Fair-related details. The team works protests and warrant sweep details. The team is very flexible and does their best to meet the communications needs of our contract agencies. Tactical Dispatchers are trained to run Incident Communications, SWAT channels, negotiator’s logs, suspect logs, track personnel, and do sniper plots and incident diagrams. Dispatchers who join CERT must have at least two years of dispatch experience and possess skill sets that lend themselves to critical and fast-paced incidents.

LESA’s CERT has 14 members and is coordinated by Barb Matson.

LESA CERT members Kayla Fyles and Leilani Erechar; courtesy Pierce County Department of Emergency Management

The purpose of the full-scale SWAT exercise was to demonstrate the ability of multiple agencies to work together in an active shooter and improvised explosive device incident, including the ability to communicate across all agencies and to incorporate mall security into the response plan.

Participating agencies/teams included the Tacoma Police Department’s Primary Call Responders, SWAT, Bomb Team, and the Mobile Command Unit; Tacoma Fire Department; Pierce County Department of Emergency Management; Pierce County Sheriff’s Department’s SWAT, Bomb Team, and Aviation Unit; Metro SWAT; Pierce Transit; LESA Communications; Washington State Patrol; and, Tacoma Mall Management and Security.

For more information: Law Enforcement Support Agency (LESA)