Businesses in the City of London took part in a training exercise on Saturday, February 22. It was to test their readiness to respond to major incidents, using various scenarios and procedures set in Leadenhall Street. More than 200 members of the emergency services and the private security sector took part in a joint training exercise, which tested how those agencies would respond in a real, major incident. The event was also sponsored and supported by the City of London Crime Prevention Association (CoLCPA).
Working also with the City of London Corporation, simultaneous incidents were set up to test responses. This is the first exercise arranged by the City Security Council (CSC) since its formation in June 2019. The CSC as the name suggests is a collective of SIA-approved private security guarding contractors. The CSC’s specific purpose; improving incident responses by security companies in the City, in times of major crises.
David Ward, Chair of the City Security Council said: “This has been an extremely insightful and successful exercise for all involved. The ability to test our collaborative approaches using simulated real-life scenarios is invaluable in our understanding and future preparedness to deal with major incidents. Working alongside the emergency services has been hugely beneficial and I would like to thank everyone involved in making the training day possible. We will now plan to develop further exercises to build upon this and our increasingly close working relationship across the City.”
And Temporary Commander Dai Evans from the City of London Police said: “This exercise in the Leadenhall Street area helped to test our shared response to a range of incidents, including a chemical substance attack and identify any areas for development. It is absolutely vital that when major incidents happen that we are agile, coordinated, and well-rehearsed in our response. Exercises like these give us the chance to learn valuable lessons on how we can further improve our responses.”
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