The Irvine Police Department reportedly flubbed an active shooter drill at an elementary school recently because surrounding neighbors who had not been informed of the training made alarmed 9-1-1 calls, and responding Irvine cops had also not been informed of the exercise.
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“There was an actual person pretending to be a shooter with a gun, for a drill, but police didn't know it was a drill. People could have been shot,” a viewer informed CBS2, which broke the story.
Wednesday's drill was organized by the Irvine Police Department at Culverdale Elementary School, where an officer posing as an intruder used a red decoy gun to train faculty for an emergency.
Just to be clear, no shots were fired and no students were on campus as it was still the summer break, but among those who called police unaware of the drill were faculty at Westpark Montessori School next door. That helped draw at least two Irvine police officers to the elementary school with real weapons.
The Irvine Unified School District later issued a statement that read: “The safety of students is our first and most important priority, which is why we regularly work with the Irvine Police Department to ensure staff and school sites are prepared in case of an emergency. This is the first time any incident like this has happened. It's a learning lesson.”
Meanwhile, a police department official told CBS2 that in the future all surrounding locations will be notified of training exercises. Might we suggest word also go out to others at the station not part of the drill?
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.