NCBRT provides feedback at Urban Shield

 

November 7, 2013

 

National Center for Biomedical Research and Training subject matter experts assisted with Urban Shield in Alameda County, CA October 25-28 for the third consecuti​ve year.

Now in its seventh year, “Urban Shield has grown into a comprehensive, full-scale regional preparedness exercise assessing the overall Bay Area UASI Region’s response capabilities related to multi-discipline planning, policies, procedures, organization, equipment and training,” as stated on the official website. Nine NCBRT instructors attended Urban Shield as subject matter experts in key disciplines to give feedback on the strengths and weaknesses of participants.

They looked at trends across all teams in multiple scenarios for all Bay Area UASI and provided one report per discipline, including SWAT, EOD, Fire, Hazardous Materials, Technical Rescue, and Emergency Management.

This feedback, along with feedback from other supporting agencies, will be used by Bay Area Urban Area Security Initiative to produce an after action report. NCBRT instructor, Rocco Forte, will use this after action report to do a gap analysis and suggest training for the upcoming year.

“If you have first responders trained, and they understand capabilities, you put them in the best possible position to be successful in a disaster,” says Forte. “You have to develop a training plan based on the gap analysis identifying the best training available for your first responders.”

The NCBRT will return to support Urban Shield in 2014. “Urban Shield is a wonderful opportunity for us to support the Bay Area UASI training needs,” says Tom Tucker, NCBRT Director. “We look forward to attending annually and will continue to offer our expertise in support of such an important training event.”