Training Continues to Evolve to Meet National Preparedness Needs
December 6, 2016
The National Center for Biomedical Research and Training at LSU began in 1998 through a small subcontract with the Office of Domestic Preparedness. The original charge was to develop a single course for law enforcement and emergency response personnel,Operational WMD Response for Law Enforcement. Numerous law enforcement courses, such as Law Enforcement Prevention and Deterrence of Terrorist Acts,WMD Tactical Operations, Advanced Forensic Investigations in Hazardous Environments, and many others soon followed. NCBRT quickly became a leader in law enforcement training.
Over the years, NCBRT expanded into the area of bioterrorism through partnerships with the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine and ODP. One of NCBRT's first bioterrorism courses, Emergency Response to Domestic Biological Incidents, is still a staple of NCBRT's bioterrorism training lane today. The course, which is updated every three years, was just updated this year.
NCBRT also saw a need to train communities to respond to agricultural terrorism incidents, so the Preparedness and Response to Agricultural Terrorism course was developed. When the course was endorsed by the United States Department of Agriculture and more food and agricultural security courses were developed and certified, NCBRT's third training lane was established.
Today, NCBRT continually develops new training within these three recognized training lanes in response to the national preparedness need. After the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007, NCBRT developed the Campus Emergencies Prevention, Response, and Recovery course to help participants navigate the difficult aspects of dealing with campus emergencies of all types.
When incidents of food recalls and illnesses began to become increasingly common, NCBRT developed the Team Approach to Foodborne Outbreak Response course to teach participants how the skills, resources and expertise of all levels of government can be effectively connected to improve collaboration during a foodborne outbreak.
In response to the frequent active shooter incidents, NCBRT developed its popular Law Enforcement Active Shooter Emergency Response course to teach law enforcement how to deal with the technical aspects of planning and implementing a rapid law enforcement deployment to an active shooter incident.
Most recently, NCBRT developed the Critical Decision Making for Complex Coordinated Attacks course. "After the Mumbai attacks it became a training issue, and the need has increased since the Paris and San Bernardino attacks. Complex coordinated attacks aren't just active shooter events. It involves all types of threats, and that requires us to look at how we respond, " said NCBRT Associate Director Jerry Monier.
"There is no crystal ball to tell us what the future holds, but I'm confident NCBRT is equipped to respond to the nations' future preparedness needs however they may change over time. Historically, we have always risen to the challenge, and we continue to grow and enhance our capabilities everyday," says NCBRT Associate Director Jason Krause.