Emergency Training To Be Held In Waukesha This May

WAUKESHA, WI — If you see more law enforcement personnel, vehicles and aircraft in the area during the first few days of May, it's because state agencies are conducting their annual mass emergency training exercise in Waukesha. Last year it was held in Dane County.

The training, called the Statewide Interoperable Mobile Communications Exercise, or SIMCOM, kicks off in Waukesha County May 1.

The three-day exercise runs May 1-3 in multiple locations in the City of Waukesha, and it represents an annual opportunity to educate, coordinate and test mobile emergency communications platforms from federal, state, local, tribal and National Guard entities in a simulated emergency response scenario.

State officials say that Waukesha residents need not be alarmed by an increased law enforcement or military presence in the area during the exercise. They can expect to see multiple aircraft from military and law enforcement agencies to include fixed-wing aircraft, rotary-wing aircraft and non-military unmanned aerial vehicles operating in the area as well as mobile radio repeaters and other communications platforms or equipment.

To ensure safe flight operations, the Wisconsin Department of Military Affairs is requesting that the public refrain from operating their own unmanned aerial systems in the city of Waukesha May 2 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

“Conducting exercises like SIMCOM in a training environment helps our state prepare for a real-world emergency,” Maj. Gen. Don Dunbar, Wisconsin’s adjutant general, said in a statement to Patch.