The campus conducted an active shooter exercise on Monday 13 May to help key personnel be more prepared for potential emergencies. While campus police conducted realistic hands on training with other local law enforcement agencies at Stokely Athletic Center, university employees assigned to the Emergency Response Team stood up the Emergency Operations Center and simulated supporting the response and recovery efforts for such an incident. The exercise simulated everything from calls from concerned parents to the UTK website being overloaded with traffic. Participants got a realistic taste of the chaos that a flood of activity and information causes in a major emergency. While the active shooter scenario drove the exercise, the experience of how to function in an Emergency Operations Center, manage information, and prioritize effort is applicable to all hazards the campus faces.
- The Emergency Operations Center in action
In addition to the boots on the ground law enforcement training, the campus also used the exercise as an opportunity to stand up and test two key emergency communications capabilities. The Emergency Call Center managed by the Office of Information Technology and staffed by volunteers from both the UT System and Knoxville campus tested their ability activate and be ready to receive calls and UTPD and the UT Amateur Radio Club set up and operationally tested our HAM radio capability.
- Officers from different departments train to respond to an active shooter as one team