CLAY COUNTY, Fla. — Five agencies came together Friday to do virtual training introducing active shooter scenes at various locations.
Clay County Sheriff Michell Cook says the goal was to learn how to coordinate and communicate in any scenario you're put in.
“There’s a next step to an active shooter scene and that’s how do you start treating and evacuating the injured, how do you start coordinating your efforts for family pick up, how do you start communicating with the public whether or not the area is safe," said Cook.
The free program is funded by FEMA and over the next couple of days, the agencies will be working with seven or eight scenarios.
“While we’re sitting here in the school board room when you’re on the virtual platform you’re actually in the building that has 12 rooms in it and you actually walk through and you have an avatar," said Kenneth Wagner, chief of the Clay County district school police department.
Sheriff Cook says this virtual platform came about during COVID and says it just as valuable as the in-person training they had in the past.
“We have a county full of law enforcement partners who are working together training together, practicing together because at the end of the day we all want to keep our kids safe and that is the ultimate end goal," said Cook.
Throughout the next few months, Cooks says they'll be doing more training exercises.