CCSO prepares for possible emergency situations

COLLIER COUNTY, Fla.- In light of recent terrorism and shootings taking place around the world, the Collier County Sheriff’s Office is making sure it’s prepared in the event anything should happen locally.

This week, deputies and first responders are getting some cutting edge training on ways to prevent tragedies.

“Proper, prior planning, hopefully will get everyone on the same page that if it does happen, we’ll have a proper response to it,” said Captain Mark Baker.

Baker says they’re learning from the best and undergoing a four-day training course from a former special operations group called D-CO.

“They’re giving us the latest, cutting edge intelligence information,” said Baker.

No cameras were allowed in the training because it’s confidential, but WINK News has learned it includes decision-making and response to a variety of potential situations including active shooters and terrorist-based scenarios.

“This training was in the planning stages well before the attacks on Paris,” said Baker. “We looked at all the world events as well as the Aurora Colorado shooting, the one recently in Colorado and see if we can do it better. Do we have any information that would lead us to be able to prevent this event before it takes place? Prevention is always the best cure.”

That’s where Baker says the community plays a big part as their eyes and ears.

“If you see it, say it, give us a call. We’ll respond, we’ll vet it out and try and make sure there’s nobody in our area that wants to do the community potential harm and that’s what we want to be ahead of. Nobody’s gonna know how many incidents are prevented, they’re only going to know when one happens and what our response to it was.”