Las Vegas Shooting: Since Columbine, Denver Officials Have Been Training For Active Threats

DENVER, CO -- Denver’s public safety officials are aware of threats for injury or an incident at one of almost 700 live events held in the Denver area every year, officials said Monday. They are always on the alert that a disaster event like the mass-shooting in Las Vegas, could happen in one of Denver’s entertainment, convention or sports centers. Just two weeks ago, Denver’s Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security held an “Active Threat” table-top exercise that bought together law enforcement partners and the FBI with private owners and managers of hotels, the Denver Arts Center, Coors Field and other public venues where large crowds gather.

“We also hosted same scenario in Vail and Ft. Collins,” said Ryan Broughton, Denver's city and county executive director of the Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security (OEMHS). “That allowed Colorado [first responders] to see how the metro area reacts versus a moderate city like Fort Collins or a resort town, like Vail.”

Broughton was hired nine months ago and has already been organizing training and coordination exercises for police, fire and ambulance personnel to react to mass crisis events.

Also See: The Victims Of The Las Vegas Shooting

“Even before 911, the Columbine High School shootings changed how Denver and Colorado practiced and coordinated our training,” Broughton said.

After the May bombings in Manchester at an Ariana Grande concert, Broughton said emergency planners in the area sat down with city attorneys to discuss ways to boost security at the region’s large-crowd venues such as Red Rocks amphitheater, Mile High Stadium, the Colorado Convention Center, Levitt Pavillion, and the Pepsi Center.

More than 1,700 police, fire and EMS personnel have been given training in technical casualty care and victim rescue, including the use of tourniquets in Denver, Jefferson, Arapaho, Douglas and Adams Counties, Broughton said. Through the Urban Area Security Initiative, 26 jurisdictions in a ten-county region share information, Broughton said.

“The next step will be functional exercises, command and control exercises where they run through the scenario of terror attack or mass casualty,” Broughton said. “That would put them in a stressful environment where we practice coordinating evacuation centers and transporting people, so we have a large pool of people who are trained and equipped to operate in that environment,” he said.

“We will continue to improve and increase our readiness; this is a continual process, to respond to events in Paris, Istanbul, Brussels, Marseilles, San Bernardino, and now Las Vegas,” he said. “There are a lot of them.”

'See Send' Mobile App Download to Report Suspicious Activity

From Colorado Information Analysis Center, Division of Homeland Security:

See Something Send Something is the preeminent nationwide suspicious activity reporting (SAR) tool for citizens to help in the fight against terrorism.
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Read more on Patch.com:

• Las Vegas Shooting: Englewood, Colo. Police Officer Wounded
• Las Vegas Shooting Latest Facts: Some Victims Identified; State Of Emergency In Clark County
• Las Vegas Shooting: At Least 59 Dead, More Than 500 Injured In Worst Mass Shooting In U.S. History
• Las Vegas Shooting: 'Craziest Stuff I've Ever Seen In My Entire Life'

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