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Golden Gate Drill
Aired May 22, 2003 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: With the nation under an orange alert and security tightened around the country, San Francisco's annual emergency drill on the Golden Gate Bridge is taking on new urgency.
Our Mike Brooks is in Sausalito. He join us now with the details.
Mike, what do you know? Tell us what you know, Mike.
MIKE BROOKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're at Golden Gate Bridge on the very north side in Marin County, where a drill is getting ready to kick off in about five minutes. It is going to test the 10 agencies that will respond to an emergency here at the Golden Gate Bridge.
Joining me right now to talk a little bit more about this exercise is Sergeant Doug Pittman of the Marin County Sheriff's Department, who is going to be overseeing the tactical operations of this particular drill.
Thanks for joining us, sergeant.
Can you tell us a little bit how the different agencies are going to coordinate tactically? What kind of weapons are they going to be using, and what kind of rounds are they going to be using against each other, if you will?
SGT. DOUGLAS PITTMAN, MARIN CO. SHERIFF'S DEPT.: Well, this afternoon, what you're going to see is a variety of agencies, both state and federal, who are going to be participating in this exercise. Primarily, you are going to see the San Francisco Police Department, the Marin County Sheriff's Department, and there's going to be some representatives from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
BROOKS: Now we may hear some shooting back and forth from each other. Now, this is going to be a fairly realistic drill. What kinds of things are they using now? What kind of rounds are they going to be firing at each other?
PITTMAN: To make this training exercise as realistic as possible, we're going to be using a training round called a "simunition" round. This is a nonlethal marking cartridge that used by law enforcement, again, both state and federal, for the purpose of -- after the exercise is completed, to critique the event, and what successes we may have achieved.
BROOKS: So they use blue for the police officers and red for the bad guys. PITTMAN: Well, in theory, yes, you can do that. The idea is, by having different cartridges assigned to different people, you can evaluate what success you have. It's difficult for an officer to say he wasn't shot when there's a big pink mark on his chest.
BROOKS: Right, and this helps to make training more realistic than it used to be?
PITTMAN: Absolutely, as opposed to having an officer firing at a still target from 25 yards, you add the reality of an officer whose adrenaline is now rushing. He knows he himself may be shot as a result of the training exercise. The adrenaline is pumping. It adds more reality to the exercise.
BROOKS: Sergeant, thank you very much.
Kyra, I can tell you from my years at the federal law enforcement training center and doing training with these, they travel at about 400 feet per second, and they definitely will leave a welt on you. If you're hit, you know you're hit.
So they're trying to make the training here as realistic as possible. And should be kicking off momentarily. And Sergeant Pittman is going to be running the tactical side of the training with all the different 10 agencies.
PHILLIPS: Mike Brooks, we'll check in with you and see how it went. Thanks, Mike.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired May 22, 2003 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: With the nation under an orange alert and security tightened around the country, San Francisco's annual emergency drill on the Golden Gate Bridge is taking on new urgency.
Our Mike Brooks is in Sausalito. He join us now with the details.
Mike, what do you know? Tell us what you know, Mike.
MIKE BROOKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're at Golden Gate Bridge on the very north side in Marin County, where a drill is getting ready to kick off in about five minutes. It is going to test the 10 agencies that will respond to an emergency here at the Golden Gate Bridge.
Joining me right now to talk a little bit more about this exercise is Sergeant Doug Pittman of the Marin County Sheriff's Department, who is going to be overseeing the tactical operations of this particular drill.
Thanks for joining us, sergeant.
Can you tell us a little bit how the different agencies are going to coordinate tactically? What kind of weapons are they going to be using, and what kind of rounds are they going to be using against each other, if you will?
SGT. DOUGLAS PITTMAN, MARIN CO. SHERIFF'S DEPT.: Well, this afternoon, what you're going to see is a variety of agencies, both state and federal, who are going to be participating in this exercise. Primarily, you are going to see the San Francisco Police Department, the Marin County Sheriff's Department, and there's going to be some representatives from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
BROOKS: Now we may hear some shooting back and forth from each other. Now, this is going to be a fairly realistic drill. What kinds of things are they using now? What kind of rounds are they going to be firing at each other?
PITTMAN: To make this training exercise as realistic as possible, we're going to be using a training round called a "simunition" round. This is a nonlethal marking cartridge that used by law enforcement, again, both state and federal, for the purpose of -- after the exercise is completed, to critique the event, and what successes we may have achieved.
BROOKS: So they use blue for the police officers and red for the bad guys. PITTMAN: Well, in theory, yes, you can do that. The idea is, by having different cartridges assigned to different people, you can evaluate what success you have. It's difficult for an officer to say he wasn't shot when there's a big pink mark on his chest.
BROOKS: Right, and this helps to make training more realistic than it used to be?
PITTMAN: Absolutely, as opposed to having an officer firing at a still target from 25 yards, you add the reality of an officer whose adrenaline is now rushing. He knows he himself may be shot as a result of the training exercise. The adrenaline is pumping. It adds more reality to the exercise.
BROOKS: Sergeant, thank you very much.
Kyra, I can tell you from my years at the federal law enforcement training center and doing training with these, they travel at about 400 feet per second, and they definitely will leave a welt on you. If you're hit, you know you're hit.
So they're trying to make the training here as realistic as possible. And should be kicking off momentarily. And Sergeant Pittman is going to be running the tactical side of the training with all the different 10 agencies.
PHILLIPS: Mike Brooks, we'll check in with you and see how it went. Thanks, Mike.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
