Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Cincinnati Police, Fire Say They're Prepared To Respond To Mass Shooting

Ann Thompson
/
WVXU

Police and fire departments across the country, including Cincinnati, are reviewing procedures following last week's mass shooting in Las Vegas.

Assistant Police Chief Paul Neudigate told a council committee Monday the city is well prepared for such an incident.
"Even though it was on a much smaller scale, the Cameo [Night Club] incident gave us a little bit of an idea of what our joint capability was, and that was handled very professionally by both police and fire and all the additional resources," Neudigate said.

Two people were killed and 15 others injured when a gun fight broke out in March at the former Cameo Night Club in the city's East End.  

Neudigate also said the department shares intelligence with regional partners to prevent such shooting incidents.

Police Chief Eliot Isaac said the department learns lessons from events like the one in Las Vegas.

"We prepare, we train and we coordinate our responses based upon some of the things that we've seen take place not only in Las Vegas, but some of the other preceding incidents that occurred in different locations," Isaac said.

That training and coordination involves the city's fire department and other nearby police agencies.

Fire Chief Roy Winston said his firefighters are ready, but he asked if you can really have a department that is large enough to handle something like that.

"I think Las Vegas would tell you that you can never build a fire department that large to handle that magnitude of mass causalities," Winston said. "I think we do have things in place, and Cameo's been mentioned before, that really help us to see how we would deal if we were to have something like that and that is to reach out to our other community partners."

Cincinnati Police and Fire do some joint training for mass shooting incidents.

Jay Hanselman brings more than 10 years experience as a news anchor and reporter to 91.7 WVXU. He came to WVXU from WNKU, where he hosted the local broadcast of All Things Considered. Hanselman has been recognized for his reporting by the Kentucky AP Broadcasters Association, the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists, and the Ohio AP Broadcasters.