Newtown Center Manager Shares Her Experience

Dispatchers at the Newtown (Conn.) emergency comm center have their good days and bad days after the tragic school shooting, their manager recently told a group of Iowa dispatchers, and training was the key element to successfully handle the incident. Maureen Will is on a tour of conferences through October to share her personal experience and to provide some insights for others in preparing for a critical incident. She spoke to 250 attendees at the Iowa Association of Public Safety Communications Officials (APCO) conference and admitted that she went into a “robot state,” operating only from her experience and training and temporarily blocking out the horrific details of the shooting. She said that knowing the incident command system, having an active shooter policy and knowing how to contact needed resources were essential during the initial stages. Read more about her advice here.