College becoming public safety training center for the region

Law enforcement agencies and city officials got a first-hand look at state-of-the-art public safety tactics and equipment during Imperial Valley College’s first Public Safety Regional Summit on Friday.

IVC Program Director Efrain Silva said, “This is part of our police academy, our fire academy, and obviously our nursing program.”

Brawley Mayor George Nava said, “It’s really for agencies to share information, to share training tactics, to see simulations of what they’re actually working on.”

Attendees stepped into shooting simulators which showed them that just one mistake could cost them their lives.

El Centro Mayor Cheryl Viegas-Walker said, “I think that really gave me an appreciation as to how difficult the job is that we ask our police officers to do every day. So, I did both the driving simulation, as well as the shooting simulation. Certainly, during both I could feel my adrenalin really amping up.”

San Luis, Arizona, Vice-Mayor Maria Cecilia Ramos said the whole experience of the summit was an eye-opener. She was especially impressed by how the house fire simulator made her feel as if she was in a real fire situation.

“When you go in there, you see and feel the intensity of the fire and the dangers that they have to go on a daily basis,” Ramos said.

The simulators give important feedback that can possibly help to save lives during real-live calls.

“The objective of the summit is to come up with agreements, come up with communications protocols so that our public safety officials across all four sides are better trained and ultimately can provide better service to all of our populations,” Silva said.

Silva said they are hoping to become the public safety training center for the region.

“I’ve been speaking to our friends from Sonora and from Baja. And there’s definitely an agreement or desire to develop an agreement for their police officers from Baja and Sonora to come here, to Imperial Valley College, and train with our simulations, train with our academies,” Silva said.