New York Cityscape Helps Train First Responders

Today's training budgets face many fiscal challenges, leading to agencies seeking out educational opportunities that are both cost effective and impactful. The New York State Preparedness Training Center meets both those goals, offering free training for area responders, like the recent bomb squad training held September 18.

The training, held on the center’s expansive 1,000 acre property (793 of the acres are being actively used), was the biggest so far this year with over 100 participants. It took explosive detection units, k9 units and tactical teams through multiple situations over three days.

Although this training has been running for five years, this year was the first that teams got to experience the center’s cityscape.   

The cityscape is a 44,000-square-foot indoor and outdoor city block, containing different set ups like a courtroom, a restaurant, motels, a school corridor and a mall corridor among other things. The outdoor portion is complete with parking meters and anything else you would see on a regular city block. The building is fitted with 160 speakers to be able to play any noise that may make the training more realistic.

“We want to make it as realistic as possible,” says Bob Stallman, assistant director of the New York State Preparedness Center.

The realism extends to even minute details. There are fake menus and food in the restaurant and taps in the bar, for example.

With the indoor and outdoor landscapes, the center is prepared to hold training drills regardless of weather. When winter strikes in New York and there’s snow on the ground and freezing temperatures, training can be moved inside, Stallman says.

The cityscape is also fitted with streetlights, so training can be held at any time of day.

The training center started in 2006, when the old Oneida County Airport was being decommissioned. The state was looking for a training center to educate New York’s EMS, law enforcement and fire, especially after 9/11, Stallman says.

Stallman says the area is perfect because it has outbuildings and hangers to run trainings in, long runways that are ideal for vehicle operations training, and it’s not in the middle of an urban area. This allows them to run trainings without being directly in the public eye, and they can do explosives training without alarming residents.

The center started as a meager operation, Stallman says. There was two classrooms and, in the first year and a half, the center trained under 1,000 people.

Last year, the center trained 17,000 of New York’s first responders.

Stallman says there are different programs in place to help EMS professionals in general. A special situations course trains paramedics to handle snowmobile and ATV accidents, camping incidents and frostbite. During the winter, they help accomplish this by not flowing some of the areas they’re holding this training, making the snowy landscape more realistic to what they would encounter.

“It really takes EMS professionals out of their comfort zone,” Stallman says.

There is also a mass casualty incident management course, and this brings in role players to deal with a plane crash, bus crash, explosive device or active shooter incident.

There is also an advanced active shooter scenario, which is unique in that it embeds EMS with law enforcement. This forces them to work together to respond to the situation, go through triage and work through the incident.

“Law enforcement provides an opportunity for the paramedics to go in during the situation and respond to injuries,” Stallman says. “We’re trying to be at the forefront of this. Every minute that goes by when someone needs medical assistance and EMS can’t get into the building, there’s more of a chance they won’t survive.”

As of now, the training is free, although Stallman says he is not sure how long this will be the case.

“Because we’re in the middle of nowhere, right now we put them up for lodging for qualified students,” Stallman says. “It’s hard to tell about changes in the future. We have a sister agency that also runs a training center that’s strictly focused on fire, and they have to charge for training. It’s in discussion, but there are no plans right now.”

The center receives its funding through the state and through the Department of Homeland Security. All of the funding they receive is spent at the center, Stallman says.

Stallman says the center trains agencies from New York, the surrounding states, the federal government and even Canada.

So far, the center has received outstanding reviews, Stallman says.

“I have gotten quite a few reviews that say there’s nowhere else that the agencies can do this,” Stallman says.

To book a training at the center, agencies can use the calendar on the website, which lists all of the trainings. Otherwise, agencies can bring their own equipment, training and students and use the facility by calling into the office and setting up a time.

For more information on the New York State Preparedness Training Center, visit dhses.ny.gov/sptc.