Defense Logistics Agency Police and central Ohio law enforcement partners participated in the first of several planned collaborative walk-throughs June 22 of Defense Supply Center Columbus facilities in an effort to continue building relationships and trust to facilitate emergency preparedness.

“Once the restrictions for COVID were lifted, we felt we could reengage with our community partners,” said DLA Police Chief Marco Schmigotzki. “And this collaborative event is the first in an ongoing series of networking with each other, to find ways in which we can support one another, whether it be allowing outside police forces to come in and utilize the [DSCC] shoot house to neighboring forces like the Franklin County Sheriff and Whitehall Police to come to the aid of the DLA Police in an emergency situation on the installation.”

The focus of the June 22 discussion was to collaborate on emergency preparedness ahead of a full-scale active shooter exercise later this summer and included a walk-through of the DLA Land and Maritime Operations Center.

Whitehall Police officer Eric Frost and Franklin County Sheriff’s Office deputies Ray DeBolt and Craig Sprang met with the DLA Police team of Schmigotzki, Lt. Brodi Moeller, Capt. Tyler Cobb and Deputy Chief Jeremy Coulson. DeBolt and Sprang hailed from the Sheriff’s Office’s K-9 team.

“Hosting these conversations with our partner agencies at the local and state level is absolutely critical to ensuring the security and safety of our DSCC community,” said Air Force Col. Craig Lowery, DLA Land and Maritime’s Chief of Staff. “The first time our partners step onto this installation should not be after a serious incident has occurred. We’re committed to continuously building that rapport and further developing core capabilities to react quickly and decisively at all levels…it’s a win, win.”

DLA Land and Maritime is based at DSCC and provides oversight of the installation. DSCC is home to dozens of tenants – including the Ohio Army National Guard’s Regional Training Institute, Navy and Army Reserve units – and employs thousands of civilian and military personnel.

At the walk-through, the group shared ideas, resources and solved potential problems in real-time as they toured the various office and common areas within the Operations Center.

Discussions centered around communications, building access and wayfinding in the event of an active shooter type emergency. The group actively planned for potential situations based on the configurations of the spaces they saw, asked questions, shared information, discussed potential issues, and took back tasks to their home agencies for further action.

Schmigotzki said the ongoing collaboration is invaluable. “Getting together and talking about it, working out problems in real time, sparks conversations that they can take back to their agencies to figure out how best to assist us in an emergency situation.”

“It’s nice to see the inside to get an idea of what we would be dealing with,” Frost said about the walk-through. “I will take this back to my department to have those needed conversations of how best to support [DLA] Police if an incident happens.”

“This is not a one and done thing,” Schmigotzki said noting that the goal is to get many more representatives from more local law enforcement agencies to come in and see these spaces in the Operations Center and beyond so they can be better prepared to respond to an active shooter or other emergency.

“We want to give our local law enforcement partners ample opportunity to engage and train with us so they can see and understand the nature of the assistance that we would need in an actual active shooter situation or other emergency,” he added.

Allowing local law enforcement agencies to use the DSCC Shoot House for training has been facilitating these conversations.

The shoot house provides enhanced, realistic training by simulating environments and workspaces the installation’s police force may need to enter and clear in the event of an incident.

Partnerships with area law enforcement agencies on the use of the shoot house have grown exponentially since the department initially opened up the use of the facility to outside agencies last year, Schmigotzki said.

Cobb said Whitehall police, FBI SWAT teams and the Franklin County Sheriff’s K-9 teams regularly utilize the facility and now the Ohio State Highway Patrol has come onboard thanks to a conversation Coulson had with them last year.

“They said it was the best thing they have seen in the entire state,” Coulson said.

Several classes of cadets have gone through various scenario-based training at the facility designed to measure their ability to put into action what they have learned in the classroom and perform under stress, he said.

Before using the shoot house, they traveled all over the state to get the real-world training they needed. Using the DSCC facility saves them time, money and manpower, he added.

“The shoot house facility is a great place for my dog to learn how to navigate and clear spaces in a simulated real-world environment,” DeBolt said. “We really appreciate the opportunity to come in and use it.”

Even the Ohio National Guard has come out on the weekend and utilized the facility for their training, Schmigotzki said noting that it is good to partner with the military tenants on the installation and off as there are shared interests and missions.

“These partnerships are key to having that close relationship so if something big happens, they are right there by our side and these events [walk-throughs] gets them here on the installation so they can see how complicated it is and learn about what they can do to help us by us helping them,” he said.

All partner agencies have been invited to participate in the exercise at DSCC later this summer.