Monterey County agencies on major event preparations

Monterey County is home to numerous events that draw thousands of people to the area every year. With each event comes a lot of ‘behind the scenes’ preparation to make sure everyone has a safe, enjoyable experience.

We checked in with the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office to find out about security and safety.

When preparing for security, such questions have to be answered: ‘What kind of exposure is the event?’ ‘Who is expected to come?,’ and ‘Are there any security threats or issues of where the event will be held.’

“Depending on the event, with our bomb squad, we’ll do a sweep to make sure there are no devices,” said Cmdr. John Thornburg.

Just recently, deputies with the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office Patrol Division all went through active shooter training. A lot of the training dealt with how to engage the shooter while protecting as many people as possible.

“They go into tactics,” Thornburg said. “Say the active shooter was across this parking lot here, how could they get from here to there as quickly as they can and as safely as they could. It sounds kind of funny saying “safely,” because the deputies are absolutely going to put themselves in extreme harm’s way to be able to do that, to be able to get there.”

And while they may not be decked out in full gear, sometimes the SWAT team is present at the event.

“We do preposition a lot of those things that most people don’t know about or necessarily need to know about because it doesn’t mean we think something is going to happen, but it’s better to be prepared and nobody ever see it,” Thornburg said.

However, the Sheriff’s Office does have a bearcat that the SWAT team uses during calls. Not only can it carry about eight people to emergencies, it can act as a shield to protect people and it is bulletproof.

But protecting Monterey County can be difficult. There are both geographical and traffic challenges and getting to places can be tough because of them.

“Parts of just about every venue or any place you go to that there are certain vulnerabilities that exist,” Thornburg said.

KION also checked in with the Monterey County Office of Emergency Services. It houses the Emergency Operations Center, where if activated, would house officials from every department.

“The Emergency Operations Center would bring in representatives from the jurisdictions, from the disciplines involved, fire, law, county hospitals, county health, etc. so that we would have a direct representative from that entity in the EOC that could communicate with the incident command post to find out their exact needs and help them coordinate their response,” said Gerry Malais, manager for the Officer of Emergency Services.

OES recently submitted its three-year plan to the California Office of Emergency Services, detailing its response plan in the event of an active shooter. It has also took part in three active shooter exercise they call invaluable.

“There’s a saying that you perform just as you train, so train as if your life depends on it, because it is,” Malais said.

He went on to say it may take some time for first responders to get to the scene of an active shooting, and knowing simple first aid could make a difference.

“Victims at the scene can be helped by other people that were either victims themselves or uninjured persons part of the incident,” Malais said. “And if you have that training, through your CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) or your EMT classes or your basic first aid, you can save somebody’s life.”

As for what people can do to protect themselves, the Department of Homeland Security suggests to “run, hide, fight.” If you can’t run for cover or hide from the shooter, to fight.

“Pay attention, if you see something, say something,” Thornburg said. “All of those things go together from this from ever happening again. And then when law enforcement responds, do exactly what they tell (you). If they tell you go ‘that way,’ go that way, they are trying to engage the shooter, they are trying to get everyone away as fast as they can, as calmly as they can.”