Courtesy photo by Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
The Lewis County Regional SWAT Team is among five such groups which will join with Olympia’s police and fire departments undergoing an “active threat” readiness exercise tomorrow at the state capitol.
The training is important since more than 6,000 state employees work on the campus daily, according to the Washington State Patrol. In addition, an estimated 500,000 people visit, tour and use the capitol grounds every year.
An estimated 200 first responders – law enforcement officers, firefighters and medical units – will be on campus. Participants will also bring about 50 vehicles to support the exercise.
SWAT teams from the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office, from Pierce County, the Washington State Patrol and from the Federal Bureau of Investigation will be there as well. The Lacey Police Department and multiple divisions from the state patrol are also taking part.
The Washington State Patrol and the Department of Enterprise Serves are coordinating the event.
“While there are no known specific threats to the campus, the training is designed to enhance preparedness, improve coordination and develop consistent response efforts among state, local and federal response agencies should an active threat occur,” the agencies stated in a news release.
Some roadways and parking lots on the west campus will be closed for staging people, equipment and vehicles.
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CORRECTION: Washington State Patrol’s SWAT team took part in this exercise.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
Really Bo? The elected law makers? haha. Just kidding of course. The campus houses a lot of innocent workers.
Actually this was a WSP training focused on WSP SWAT who invited the other agencies to participate. WSP is the primary LE agency who covers the entire campus and wsp swat is responsible for the tactical responce to the entire camous.
For once they find something useful to protect.