New York City emergency responders held a critical incident training exercise early Sunday morning at Grand Central Terminal, and tested out some new technologies provided by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T).
The New York Police Department (NYPD), the Fire Department of New York (FDNY), the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Police Department (MTA-PD), New York State Police and the National Guard conducted the exercise to evaluate tactics, techniques, and procedures they would utilize while responding to a critical incident.
S&T, through its National Urban Security Technology Laboratory (NUSTL) and Homeland Security Advanced Research Project Agency (HSARPA), inserted relevant technologies into the exercise to assess their capabilities to improve first responders’ preparedness and response to a large-scale, urban, critical incident.
“We know that having the right technology in the hands of a first responder can save critical minutes or seconds — and reduce injuries and save lives,” said DHS Under Secretary (Acting) for Science and Technology, William N. Bryan.
“The needs of responders and the public are at the center of every decision we make as S&T works to leverage new technology to make our nation’s first responders better protected, connected, and fully aware, regardless of the hazards they face.”
S&T has engaged with first responders in seven similar exercises since 2013 in New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts at schools, a movie theater, a synagogue, a subway station, a college, and a Major League Baseball stadium.
(Learn More about DHS S&T Operational Experimentation (Op-Ex) which has the ability to bring together engineers and operators from the field, so that we can best integrate into the new technologies those things that are useful. Courtesy of DHS Science and Technology Directorate and YouTube)
“The world we live in today demands that we have the training and capability to respond to incidents in any public environment,” added Mr. Bryan.
The recent horrific mass shooting in Las Vegas has unfortunately demonstrated that this exercise is timely and relevant.”
The exercise provided a valuable evaluation platform for existing and emerging technologies that could be deployed in the future.
Technologies that address blue-force tracking and situational awareness, gunshot detection, and video analytics were jointly selected by S&T and the responder agencies, integrated into the exercise, used by exercise responders and commanders, and assessed to determine their effectiveness in managing a critical incident response.
DHS Science & Technology Directorate (S&T) a Finalist in the 2017 ‘ASTORS’ Homeland Security Awards Program
The 2017 ‘ASTORS’ Homeland Security Awards Program, is organized to recognize the most distinguished vendors of Physical, IT, Port Security, Law Enforcement, First Responders, (Fire, EMT, Military, Support Services Vets, SBA, Medical Tech) as well as the Federal, State, County and Municipal Government Agencies – to acknowledge their outstanding efforts to ‘Keep our Nation Secure, One City at a Time.’
As an ‘ASTORS’ competitor, DHS S&T is competing against the industry’s leading providers of Innovative Critical Infrastructure Protection Solutions.
American Security Today will be holding the 2017 ‘ASTORS’ Awards Presentation Luncheon at 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m, Wednesday, November 15th at ISC East, the Northeast’s largest security industry event, in the Jacob Javits Exhibition Center in New York City.
At ISC East you will have the chance to meet with technical reps from over 225 leading brands in the security industry, allowing you to find out about new products and stay ahead of the competition.
Encompassing everything from Video Surveillance and Access Control to Smart Home Technologies and Unmanned Security, you’re sure to find products and services that will benefit your company and clients.
To register for the ‘ASTORS’ Awards Presentation Luncheon at ISC East, in the Jacob Javits Exhibition Center from 12:00pm – 2:00pm, click on the banner below, or go to https://americansecuritytoday.com/product/awards-luncheon/
Good luck to DHS S&T on becoming a Winner of the 2017 American Security Today’s Homeland Security Awards Program!
Click here to learn more https://www.dhs.gov/.
Also please visit the New DHS S&T Mobilizing Innovation website at https://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/SciTechMobilizingInnovation/index.html.
