It’s one of several workshops taking place at the Conference
Ocean City, Md (KM) Active shooter and situational awareness is one of the workshops which took place at the Maryland Municipal League 2019 Summer Conference in Ocean City, which began on Sunday.
Frederick Mayor Michael O’Connor attended that workshop on Monday. He says many police departments and other emergency services agencies have plans in place for dealing with these incidents. “What we’re seeing now is the need to more fully integrate government, business and the community in how you respond to these,” he says.
That includes making sure employees at government buildings know what to do when there is an active shooter situation. WFMD News asked Mayor O’Connor if employees at city hall, the municipal annex on West Patrick and other city facilities have been trained in how to stay safe during these incidents. “We are constantly working on the ways in which we work with our employees, and the way in which we work internally,” he replied. “So we have developed some of the internal tools. You’ll appreciate that I don’t want to express 100% of the things of the things that we are doing, and have done.”
He also pointed out that any plan developed to deal with active shooter situations needs to be constantly updated to reflect the changing times. “You had adopted a plan five or ten years ago, it’s really important to go back and look and see what is changed in the environment that what we’re living in now, and how do we modify our plan accordingly. And then train, train, train, do drills,” says Mayor O’Connor.
With all of the workshops taking place, Mayor O’Connor says one of “the great values” of attending these conferences is the insights he gains in discussions with elected officials from other cities and towns on how they deal with issues such as transportation and vacant properties. There’s also opportunities to speak with state officials about storm water management, upgrading waste water treatment plants or other issues.. “All communities across the state are dealing with many of the same kind of issues, and that information exchange and those ideas are really a valuable resource,” he says.
Governor Larry Hogan will address MML members on Tuesday night. The conference will wrap on Wednesday.
The Maryland Municipal League represents 157 cities and towns in the state.
By Kevin McManus