To help ensure that Chester County is ready to respond in the case of a mass hostage or shooting emergency, the Delaware County Community College and the Chester County Emergency Management Agency, together with a number of other local law enforcement and emergency management agencies, held an exercise in emergency preparedness on Saturday, February 20th.

The exercise was held at DCCC’s Downingtown Campus located at 100 Bond Drive where it simulated hostage and active shooter situations. Volunteers acted out the roles of students and professors, including simulating wounded victims and casualties. This was the latest in a line of emergency preparedness initiatives taken by the College, and it follows up on a similar emergency preparedness exercise held at its Marple Campus in Media in July 2014.

“We take the safety of our students, staff and visitors very seriously and want to be as prepared as possible in the event of a true emergency,” said DCCC President Dr. Jerry Parker. “Our sincere thanks to the East Brandywine Police Department and other law enforcement and emergency management agencies that helped the College conduct this exercise.”

Close to 75 law enforcement and emergency responders participated in the exercise, among them Police Departments of East Brandywine, Caln and Downingtown, the Chester County Sheriff’s office, the Chester County SWAT, Minquas and East Brandywine EMS units, as well as the communications and emergency management personnel of Chester County’s Emergency Services.

The exercise was also attended by the Philadelphia office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation as well as the College’s Safety and Security department’s assessors and observers. The DCCC has recently implemented an Incident Command System to make sure it is as prepared as possible in the case of a real emergency on its Delaware and Chester County campuses. The emergency preparedness exercise was an ideal way to test out that system.

The results of the exercise will be studied to make sure that the current system is running as effectively and efficiently as possible and to look for areas for improvement.