Law enforcement, rescue crews team up and take part in domestic security training

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (WSVN) -- Several agencies teamed up to take part in simultaneous attack drills at several locations throughout Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe Counties.

Law enforcement, rescue crews and volunteers, including high school and college students, took part in the drills Wednesday afternoon, which played out all over South Florida.

Some of the simulated simultaneous attacks included SWAT teams surrounding a bus with a hostage inside at Bicentennial Park in Downtown Miami, and then, at the same time, a bomb was detected at the American Airlines Arena, and not far away, police rushed to another emergency, a school shooting.

Some of those playing the role as victims are police officers in training. "People screaming, running, there's a lot of people on the floor, blood," said Jenna Maldonado.

Other drills played out at Lockhart Stadium in Fort Lauderdale.

The purpose of these drills serve to test how well those who run into disaster will respond, while everyone else heads the other way. "It's something that we have to be ready for in case it ever happens. We hope that we never have to respond in this scenario, but we do need to be prepared," said Miami Beach Police Detective Juan Sanchez.

Sanchez added that a large amount of exercises unfolding at one time was key to the test. "The fact that we've done it to this scale is great for our officers because even though they know it's a scenario, they're still responding to it as if it were real, and they are actually using their weapons, which were converted to a simulated weapon."

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