(Decatur, IL) — HSHS St. Mary’s Hospital, the Macon County Sheriff’s Office, the Decatur Police Department and the Decatur Fire Department held an active shooter exercise Wednesday on the campus of St. Mary’s Hospital. The exercise provided the opportunity to train hospital staff, law enforcement and other agencies should an active shooter event happen in our community.
This exercise provided participants with an opportunity to assess capabilities, plans, policies, and procedures.
“Unfortunately, in our world today, an active shooter event is not out of the question,” said Joan M. Coffman, president, and CEO of St. Mary’s Hospital. “That is why we joined with our local agencies to perform these exercises to help prepare our colleagues if an active shooter event ever occurred in our community.”
The exercise involved many local agencies.
“Today, we performed three scenarios along with a fourth full-field training exercise that involved St. Mary’s Hospital, Decatur Police Department, Macon County Sheriff’s Office, Decatur Fire Department and Decatur Ambulance Service,” said Lt. Ed Hurst of the Decatur Police Department. “We appreciate our partnership with St. Mary’s Hospital and look forward to working with them on other exercises in the future.”
Each scenario was different and provided unique challenges for the participants involved.
“There are things that went great, and also some opportunities to improve,” said Lt. Jim Root of the Macon County Sheriff’s Office and coordinator of the Macon County Emergency Management Agency. “We will continue to improve our strategies and protocols to be able to perform if this situation ever arises.”