Santa Monica Pier was closed to the public on Thursday morning and anyone in the vicinity of the legendary seaside structure would’ve noticed an unusually high police presence. Thankfully, this wasn’t because anyone had climbed the Ferris Wheel claiming to have an explosive device — no, not this time — this was a large-scale training exercise, which had been planned six months ago, designed to test and teach the Santa Monica emergency services.
The fact that a real-life scenario extraordinarily similar to the planned exercise had unexpectedly unfolded just two days before the simulation was scheduled to take place, was a staggering coincidence and if nothing else, just goes to show how important it is that our emergency services are prepared for anything.
Emergency scenarios, whether they be natural disasters or man made problems, are taken very seriously as removing thousands of people from one of the country’s most famous landmarks is a huge task. Consequently, the Santa Monica Police Department (SMPD), Fire Department and Coast Guard developed a multi-agency training exercise to better prepare for the unlikely event of a disaster-induced rapid pier evacuation.
“In our line of business, we always have to think about the worst case scenario and plan for it and hope for the best,” said Doug Woodhams, Sergeant with the SMPD’s Directed Action Response Team.
A call went out for volunteers a few weeks ago and a crowd of approximately 50 had gathered in the early hours of Thursday morning. Fortunately, there was a plentiful supply of coffee as we inhaled the salty sea air and watched the sun slowly blanket the beautiful coastline.
After the completion of all necessary registration forms, we were asked to divide up into several different groups. Meanwhile, members of the press had gathered on the bluffs of Pacific Park to play their part in maintaining as much realism as possible. This reporter however, was in the thick of it and had ended up in the group of volunteers that would represent hostages held captive in the arcade.
Credit: Santa Monica Police Department
The simulated scenario set to unfold was that a high-speed pursuit involving officers from Culver City Police Department had resulted in the suspect’s vehicle making its way onto the Pier. The SMPD responds and not only comes under fire themselves, but also discover a number of civilian casualties strewn up and down the Pier before the suspects barricade themselves in the Playland Arcade. It even included the element of fleeing civilians leaping off the west end of the Pier, albeit that was performed by trained divers, rather than volunteers.
“From evacuating the Pier to triaging hostages while coming under fire, the ability to utilize real-life locations in the City serves as the best opportunity to prepare our staff to perform at the highest level possible while under high stress situations,” Myesha Morrison, SMPD Public Information Coordinator, told the Daily Press.
Once inside the arcade, two members of SMPD Special Weapons and Tactics team (SWAT) were roleplaying as the “suspects” since they were instructing the other members of the emergency services. Our group quickly dragged a number of pinball machines across the floor to block the exits and closed the shutters, to create as much of an authentic environment as possible.
The hostages were divided into two smaller groups of just three and four and positioned next to the north and south exits. Each suspect/SWAT instructor was attempting to confuse and confound the SMPD, who were in the process of surrounding the arcade. Every now and again a hostage was stood up and shown at the window together with the suspect pointing his handgun to illustrate the seriousness of the situation and test the patience of SMPD officers.
At the north entrance, an exchange of gunfire took place — thankfully, paintball in this instance — during which one of the suspect/SWAT instructors saw an opportunity to engage approaching officers, who returned fire. Mimicking a highly probable scenario, the suspect used a hostage as a human shield, which ultimately resulted in civilian injury.
However, since this is tragically a very real possibility — and indeed, the suspects had already demonstrated a total lack of any concern for the life of innocent bystanders — this was an opportunity for another critical element of the crisis to be rehearsed by the emergency medical services as the “wounded” hostage, Nathan Smithson, was whisked away by paramedics.
“We made every effort to make this training as realistic and as challenging as possible, to force many layers of training. And it wasn’t just Nathan, who got caught in the crossfire, it was several officers and that’s what precipitated the whole thing, other officers were trying to effect a rescue,” Woodhams told the Daily Press.
Credit: Santa Monica Police Department
“Having a wounded hostage forced an additional challenge of priority decision making, having to resolve the situation in a timely fashion to render aid while facing the situation of a barricaded gunmen with hostages, which is one of the most challenging circumstances we could create. And we did not want to shy away from the difficulty of the circumstance, otherwise there would be very little training value,” Woodhams added.
Now it was my turn to stand by the north entrance and I could hear the on-going conversation between the SMPD crisis negotiator and the suspect/SWAT instructor, the former trying to calm the situation down and the latter trying to maintain as high a level of chaos, stress and uncertainty as possible. It was eye-opening to say the least.
Eventually, a few hours later, and according to the story script, the suspects were convinced into letting the hostages go and we were released into the bright morning sunshine and instructed to act dazed and confused. As I was led away, I could see SMPD storm the arcade and bring out at least one of the suspects alive.
After the excitement was all over, everyone got together for a team photograph to celebrate the experience and it was exactly that, an incredible and insightful experience.
“I believe that the experience left everyone involved recognizing that Santa Monica has a very good, very well informed and very well trained team ready to respond to emergency situations,” said Jim Harris, Executive Director at Santa Monica Pier Corporation, who was also one of the hostages in the arcade.
“While there was never any doubt from the Pier community, it is exercises like this that enable the Pier community — merchants, visitors and stakeholders — to rest a bit easier about the safety of our Pier visitors with the support of Santa Monica’s highly prepared team of first responders,” Harris said.
Santa Monica Police Chief Ramon Batista told the Daily Press, “Realistic, immersive training like this exercise is crucial to building a department of officers who can respond to any threat to public safety in Santa Monica. We challenged our staff with a stressful, chaotic scenario using an iconic piece of our City infrastructure to make sure that we are as ready as an organization can be to handle any situation that puts our residents and visitors in jeopardy.”