What law enforcement officers from Grover Beach, Arroyo Grande and Pismo Beach did Saturday may save lives in the future.
They joined other first responders from the Five Cities area for emergency response training.
If a real-life tragedy strikes our community, they need to be ready and they need to move quickly. Det. Sgt. Matt Goodman from the Grover Beach Police Department was a training instructor for the event.
“So we focus on our response and how do we handle that as an issue,” Goodman said. “We know that when lives matter, seconds count.”
Police were taken through drills to realistically represent emergencies in the community, with a focus on protecting “soft targets,” like churches and schools. George Nevarez is the lead pastor of Calvary Chapel, where one training was conducted.
“If someone wants to be malicious, if they want to hurt people, these would be one of the places that they would come,” Nevarez said. “I just believe that it's very important to be aware of that, but also to allow our law enforcement to be able to train, to be able to help us and protect us and even save us.”
One of the exercises included solidifying effective communication among dispatchers and the hundreds of emergency workers who would likely respond in a large-scale event.
“When the actual incident occurs, there's not a guessing game of how we're going to do this,” Goodman said. “We have a clear set of guidelines that we follow. So that way, when the incident occurs, we're not spending minutes trying to figure out how we're going to do something. We can jump into action and save lives.”
Pastor Nevarez said as a resident of the five cities, watching this training makes him feel more comfortable in public spaces.
“Just knowing that law enforcement is prepared, they're going to respond quickly and they're going to know exactly what to do and how to address the situation,” Nevarez said.
Goodman said the public should not be worried if they see an increase in law enforcement around the training areas.
