Central Coast looks into mass shooting preparedness

A massive emergency response to Wednesday’s deadly shooting in San Bernardino, serves as wake up call for some local agencies.

“Just this morning we were talking about what type of equipment or bag we could give to the deputies to help them respond to these scenes,” said Monterey County Sheriff’s Office commander John Thornburg.

“We have to be prepared,” said Bob Ingersoll with the Del Rey Oaks Police Department.

The Del Rey Oaks Police Department says in the event of a mass shooting they would not only deploy officers but their regional rescue vehicle.

“To rescue people and to get officers to an area safely and also render aid to people maybe trapped in a building,” said Ingersoll.

The 56,000 pound mine resistant armored vehicle came from Iraq.

It’s equipped with navigation, cameras for extra visibility, emergency first aid and radios to communicate with other law enforcement agencies.

“Absolutely, the equipment that we have is required and we do need it to handle the situations that do arise,” said Thornburg.

The Monterey County Sherriff’s Office says it’s also ready to tackle threats.

“That ranges from vehicles to clothing to rifles,” said Thornburg.

The sheriff’s office has a swat team, is undergoing active shooter training, has four Humvees and a bearcat to approach hostile situations.

“For example yesterday they used two bearcats to come up on both sides of the black suv,” said Thornburg. “Those are armored vehicles that we can’t take a regular patrol car up to. We sure don’t want to go up there on foot.”

Agencies we spoke with say there are standard mutual aid agreements in place if tragedy were to strike but maybe more can be done.

“Are we all on the exact same page probably not, are we on the same chapter, yes,” said Thornburg.