After Orlando: Austin Police Assure They're Ready Should Such An Attack Occur Here [VIDEO]

AUSTIN, TX -- The Austin Police Department chief of staff staged a press conference in the wake of the worst mass shooting in U.S. history in Florida to assuage residents of the preparedness of the local force in the event of such an event locally.

APD Assistant Chief of Police Brian Manley began with expressing his condolences to the victims' families in Orlando, Fla. Shortly after 2 a.m. there, a shooter killed 49 people and wounded another 53 who were gathered at a nightclub there.

"First and foremost, on behalf of the department, I want to extend our deepest condolences to the victims of this horrific event that took place in Orlando, their families, the community as well as the Orlando Police Department," Manley said. "They were faced with a horrific attack that no community should have to endure and they're now suffering through the aftermath of that tragedy with a level of loss that is hard to comprehend."

The focus locally in that grim aftermath is to take lessons from the tragedy -- as the APD has taken from murderous mayhem seen in communities nationally and internationally -- and prepare accordingly, Manley said.

"But more so today, instead of talking about what happened in Orlando, i wanted to spend a few minutes talking about Austin, what we do in Austin to prepare for an event that we hope never occurs here but does seem to be occurring more frequently across this country, steps we take to keep our community safe and process and program we have in place to address that."

Manley then summoned past tragedies as examples of events from which the Austin Police Department takes lessons and implements safeguards to prepare for similar violence should it happen locally.

Lessons from the Boston Marathon incorporated in Austin

The Boston Marathon bombing is such an example, Manley said. Austin shares similar dynamics with Boston, given the plethora of athletic events at which people gather en masse, he suggested.

The April 2013 terrorist attack occurred after two pressure cooker bombs were set off, exploding seconds apart near the finish line and killing three people and injuring more than 260 others.

"We took lessons learned from that," Manley said of the Boston Marathon bombing.

Like Boston, Austin has a thriving racing community of both the foot and bicycle variety. Later this month, two races -- the Fit Foodie 5K and the Keep Austin Weird 5K -- are scheduled on the 25th. For the remainder of the year, some 30 more Austin races of myriad variety are scheduled.

"We looked at how we view security here in Austin for all of our races, and although I won't go into the specifics of that, we took steps to make sure that we were target-hardening each and every one of our races so that we wouldn't face a similar situation here."

More lessons taken from Mumbai

Another tragedy from which lessons were taken date to 2008, stemming from the Mumbai attacks in Pakistan, Manley said. The November 2008 attack in November 2008 was carried out by 10 members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, an Islamic militant organisation based in Pakistan, that carried out a series of 12 coordinated shooting and bombing attacks lasting four days across Mumbai.

By the time the siege concluded three days later, 164 people had been killed at another 300-plus wounded.

"As we analyzed what occurred there we realized if a similar event were to occur here, at that time it would've taxed our ability as an agency to truly resp to that in an eff manner and to put down a threat like that as quickly as possible."

As a result, the APD formed the "counter-assault strike team," (CAST) a specialized group of some 120 police officers who have undergone advanced training in use of equipment in the area of active shooter prevention and response, Manley said. Those officers are on patrol and in the investigations division, working seven days a week both day and night, Manley said.

"They would be available as first responders if we were to ever face a horrific incident like this one," Manley said.

ARIC and Real Time Crime Center are two more tools in the APD's arsenal

He pointed to other resources at the APD's disposal to monitor for potential threats. One such tool is the Austin Regional Intelligence Center, a collaborative effort comprising 17 public safety agencies in Hays, Travis and Williamson counties that focuses on regional public safety data analysis. The partner agencies work together to provide resources, expertise and/or information to the center, according to a description on the city's website.

"ARIC allows us to share information with all of our regional law enforcement partners in the effort to connect the dots to make sure we're not missing the bigger picture of what might be occurring throughout the region," Manley said. "ARIC is always active monitoring for any threat streams, anything that occurs locally, nationally or and even internationally for anything that might pose a threat here locally."

ARIC was mobilized as the shooting in Orlando unfolded, obtaining data both from open sources and from federal agencies to monitor if the threat might extend to Austin, Manley said.

Another APD tool is the Real Time Crime Center, he said. It's essentially a watch commander's office that offers a panoramic view of the city and its hot spots, informing the commander to move police resources around as needed.

Launched in 2011, the center is a room filled with computer and television monitors allowing officers to monitor radio traffic 24 hours a day. The monitoring of surveillance cameras is a key component of the Real Time Crime Center, particularly those aimed at parts of a city offering a vibrant night life like the nightclub in Orlando that yielded mass casualties.

"I bring this up only in light of the entertainment district which I'm sure is of greater concern to a lot of folks based on where this incident in Orlando occurred, and the fact that Austin has a very vibrant night life and very vibrant downtown entertainment district and the question that many might ask is 'could this happen here?' "

Safety measures in place for upcoming 'Austin Pride' event

The full array of APD resources will be in at the ready for the upcoming Austin Pride gathering scheduled Aug. 20, Manley said. The event is a show of pride in the LGBT community that will include a parade down Congress Avenue.

"Everyone also will probably be asking questions about the Pride parade," Manley said, alluding to the locale of the attack in Orlando inside a gay nightclub. "We celebrate the Pride event in August here every year. It's a great event where we get members of Austin's LGBTQ community coming out as well as regular Austinites and they come out and have a parade down Congress, and it's a huge celebration and it's been held for many, many years."

This year will be no different, Manley said. While no security incident have occurred in the past, the Orlando incident and an aborted attack in California that had targeted the gay pride event there puts the upcoming Austin Pride event into greater focus.

But Manley assured the police presence would be fortified and the monitoring thorough.

"And it will be held again this year, and we will step up our efforts to make sure we're paying attention to any threat that may be out here as we've done in years past so this parade and celebration can be held in safety as it has been done in years past," Manley said.

Mass shooter police training offered to churches, businesses, others

In addition to its defense arsenal, the APD also offers training to organizations on how to react in the event a shooter enters their establishment, Manley added. The outreach has been long available upon request, and not in direct response to the Orlando shooting -- although some organizations might reach out now in light of that event.

"We also have a group that gives training to local businesses, local churches on how to respond to an active shooter," Manley said of the CAST-led initiative. "It's unfortunate that we live in a time where you have to be prepared for how you would respond for youself and your family or whatever group that you're with whether it be at a restaurant, movie theater, church and now even an entertainment district."

The training is provided by members of the CAST team, Manley said, and those interested can contact the APD. He noted LGBT community leaders have been contacted by police in the wake of the Orlando shooting offering such training, Manley said.

"We've got a group of officers, part of the CAST team, that goes out to the community and has been doing this for years, teaching businesses, churches, schools any group that wants a training session on how best to target-harden their facility, how they could best respond if they were to be faced with an active shooter situation and just the best ways to stay informed and prepared."

In the end, the APD is fully prepared to respond to a horrific tragedy, based on lessons learned from attacks elswhere in the country. With hope, those lessons will never have to be exercised in Austin.

"We've learned lessons from Mumbai, we've learned lessons from Boston, and we will look to this tragedy that occurred in Orlando to look for any lessons that can be learned and to incorporate those into our lessons, our plans, in the work we do here in Austin," Manley said.

Watch Manley's press conference below: