MCC and Brighton police prepare for hostage situation

Brighton Police teamed up with Monroe Community College and the Monroe County Sheriffs Department for a hostage situation exercise at the college campus on Sunday.
 
“The scenario included the involvement of an active shooter that was operating between three distinct buildings within the MCC campus,” said Brighton Police Capt. Bill Principe. Students participated in the exercise acting as hostages.  Members of the Monroe County Sheriffs SWAT Team also participated in the exercise.

Back in April, 33 people were killed when a gunman went on a shooting spree at Virginia Tech. Officials say this exercise is critical to making sure all agencies are communicating on the same page.
 
“We all operate under the same incidence command system so we have the same language the same protocols but we don’t work together all the time so this brings us together to make us practice those skills,” said MCC Director of Public Safety Lee Struble. “What we are able to do is test all of the systems and see if there're any problems that would pop up in a scenario like this,” added Monroe County Sheriff Patrick O’Flynn.
 
Officials say they will evaluate there performance in the exercise to see what needs to be improved. This is the third such exercise this year.