Elaine De Valle
The Miami Herald
Copyright 2007 The Miami Herald
MIAMI — Saturday started like any other slow weekend morning for Coral Gables police -- very little traffic and the promise of a quiet shift.
Then a call came in at 7:01 a.m.: Two people fighting in the hallway of a dorm at the University of Miami. And one of them is waving a gun.
“Shots fired! Shots fired!” shouted a dispatcher as units converged on the campus.
Though it was just a drill, officers reacted as if the scenario were real during what they and university officials called the largest training exercise of its kind in South Florida.
About 500 law enforcement officers from 11 agencies, including about 120 from the Gables, took part in the drill, which cost the city about $50,000 in overtime, food and water. Five fire departments and a number of local hospitals also participated.
“You don’t spend that much normally on training, but this is so important, and we knew we had to get it done this year, because financially, we are not going to be able to do it next year,” Gables Police Chief Michael Hammerschmidt said.
“It was also important, we felt, to get it done before the school year.”
Spurred by April’s tragedy at Virginia Tech -- in which a student shot and killed 32 other students and teachers in the deadliest murder spree by a lone gunman in U.S. history -- the drill helped the university and the UM and Coral Gables police prepare for such an incident.
Snipers lay across the fields and on top of buildings. SWAT teams rushed a classroom at the School of Business and shot and killed a “gunman.” Paramedics treated more than 50 bleeding, screaming “victims.”
“We already have very sophisticated hurricane preparation, and most of that is handled in-house,” said UM President Donna Shalala, who observed much of the action.
“In the case of a criminal incident, we need more than our own police. We need cooperation from other police sources, from the community, particularly for something of Virginia Tech’s magnitude,” Shalala said.
UM Police Chief David Rivero said students and parents often ask him if a Virginia Tech-style incident could happen on the lush UM Gables campus.
‘Now I can feel confident saying that ‘Yes, it can happen, but we are ready for that,’ ” Rivero said, adding that the made-to-look-real scenarios -- with smoke, misinformation and victims screaming as if truly in agony -- put real stress on officers.
“You can see it on a video. You can see it in brochures, in handouts. But until you can feel it and do it, that’s when you really feel confident,” Rivero said.
Rivero and Hammerschmidt said the principal lesson they learned was how to work with other police agencies.
Police learned during the drill that they must improve communication between the agencies involved. Around midday, it became clear that more handheld radios were needed, forcing commanders to send for additional radios from a station across town.
“If there is ever a real situation, we’ll have those here, ready to go from the get-go,” Hammerschmidt said.
Virginia Tech Police Chief Wendell Finchum, who shared lessons learned with law enforcement Friday night, watched Saturday and told Hammerschmidt his department had faced similar issues.
The university learned what it needs to provide to police in the event of an emergency, Shalala said.
“We found out what information we need to have ready -- maps of the campus, plans of buildings, information about who is in a building, what classes are going on, how many students are there,” Shalala said.
“It reminds you that we have to take these things seriously,” she said. “Training together makes us safer.
“I hope we never have to use our skills, but we’re going to know our lessons perfectly.”