To best prepare Police, Fire, and 911 Dispatch personnel to respond to active shooter/active attacker events, the cities of Cedar Hill, DeSoto, Duncanville, and Lancaster joined forces for a large full-scale training exercise. The exercise took place all day Wednesday February 28, 2025 at Valley Ridge Park in Cedar Hill, Texas. Over the course of the day, 81 Police Officers, 45 Fire Personnel, and 12 Southwest Regional Communication Center (SWRCC) Dispatchers participated in multiple attack scenarios. These scenarios included simulated active shooters, coordinated attacks, and bomb detonations in various areas of the park. Each scenario included fake scripted calls to SWRCC where dispatchers handled frantic callers and dispatched first responders to the simulated scene. Upon their arrival, Police and Fire personnel were met with volunteers acting as injured victims and non-participating Police Officers acting as the “bad guys”. Police, Fire, and Dispatch coordinated to secure the scene, treat the injured, and request resources such as CareFlite, as needed.
The planning for this exercise began in August of 2023 and was spearheaded by the Southwest Regional Office of Emergency Management, who serves the four cities. Emergency Management convened a planning team made up of representatives from Police and Fire of all 4 cities and SWRCC to create an exercise beneficial to our responders. Given the frequency and magnitude of active shooter/active attacker events occurring in the State and in the world, it was important that our first responders have the opportunity to overcome those difficulties using their trained skills in a practice environment. The planning team collaborated monthly to create probable scenarios and a training environment that would test their response, coordination, adaptability, and collaboration. Each city plans internal exercises, but this was the first exercise that involved all of the participating response agencies at once. The exercise would not have been a success without the DFW area volunteers who helped in various roles; 53 volunteers served as actors, while 59 additional city staff and volunteers served as exercise staff. These volunteers were from 30 public safety departments/public safety affiliated volunteer organizations such as local Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT), Citizens on Patrol (C.O.P.), Academy Alumni Groups, etc.
Participating Response Agencies: Cedar Hill Police, Cedar Hill Fire, Cedar Hill ISD Police, DeSoto Police, DeSoto Fire, Duncanville Police, Duncanville Fire, Lancaster Police, Lancaster Fire, Southwest Regional Communications Center, CareFlite, Southwest Regional Emergency Management, Southwest Regional Fire Training.
The lessons learned from this training exercise will be incorporated into future trainings to allow responders more opportunities to refine skills and collaborate together ahead of responses to real world emergencies. All four cities intend to plan and host a training exercise of this magnitude every few years, while smaller exercises will continue each year.