The Brief
- Police officers and firefighters/EMTs from across the state are participating in a realistic Lakeland active shooter training program on a local college campus.
- The hands-on drills are part of the first-ever conference hosted by the Florida SWAT Association to improve law enforcement responses.
- Local residents are being told not to be alarmed by the heavy police presence over the next couple of weeks.
LAKELAND, Fla. – Law enforcement officers from across the state have gathered at Florida Southern College for realistic tactical training drills. The exercises mark the first-ever conference hosted by the Florida SWAT Association to prepare teams for high-stakes emergencies.
Lakeland active shooter response
What we know:
The specialized drills require teams to confront simulated threats immediately upon arriving at a scene with minimal dispatch details. A first-responding SWAT sergeant is also leading critical debriefs focused on practical lessons learned during the historic Pulse Nightclub emergency.
“We may give them a dispatch call that says hey, there’s an active shooter that there’s a suspicious person in the parking lot,” Sgt. Nicholas Rex said.
“As soon as they make contact with that person, they quickly learn—just like in real life—that this person is an active shooter, and they have to engage that person and stop that threat, so that’s what a typical scenario here looks like,” Rex explained.…