Emergency Responder Douglas Kyle, of Bucyrus, recently completed training offered by the Center for Domestic Preparedness (CDP), in Anniston, Ala.
The CDP is operated by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and is the only federally-chartered Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) training facility in the nation.
Kyle is an officer with the Mountain Grove Police Department and is a candidate for Texas County sheriff in the upcoming election. One of the themes of the training was dealing with protestors.
“The training was a fantastic experience and it was great to be able to work with departments from all across the nation,” he said. “I think it is great to be able to visit with law enforcement agencies from other areas to hear how they implement policies and procedures on protester extraction and other areas which we as law enforcement agencies face every day.”
Kyle got involved in the training via a friend who works with the Missouri State Highway Patrol.
“It was very practical in regards to hands on training,” Kyle said. “We were able to see the correct way in which protesters should be extracted from different types barricades, along with the correct tools which are needed during the extraction.”
The CDP develops and delivers advanced training for emergency response providers, emergency managers, and other government officials from state, local and tribal governments. The CDP offers more than 40 training courses focusing on incident management, mass casualty response, and emergency response to a catastrophic natural disaster or terrorist act. Training at the CDP campus is federally funded at no cost to state, local and tribal emergency response professionals or their agency.
Resident training at the CDP includes healthcare and public health courses at the Noble Training Facility, the nation’s only hospital dedicated to training healthcare professionals in disaster preparedness and response.
A number of resident training courses culminate at the CDP’s Chemical, Ordnance, Biological and Radiological (COBRA) Training Facility. The COBRA is the nation’s only facility featuring civilian training exercises in a true toxic environment using chemical agents. The advanced hands-on training enables responders to effectively prevent, respond to, and recover from real-world incidents involving acts of terrorism and other hazardous materials.
Responders participating in CDP training gain critical skills and confidence to respond effectively to local incidents or potential WMD events.
Information about CDP training programs can be found online at http://cdp.dhs.gov. For more information about the CDP, call the CDP External Affairs Office at 256-847-2212, ext. 2316, or email pao@cdpemail.dhs.gov.