The Toms River Office of Emergency Management, EMS Division, in conjunction with Toms River Police Department, Toms River Fire Departments, and the Simons Ocean County Mall are conducting a training exercise to test the responses of each agency. The drill will take place at the Ocean County Mall on Sunday October 26, 2014 between 7 am and 10 am.

The purpose of this drill is to test and evaluate the agency responses and is designed to simulate real life scenarios. Role players will act as potential criminals and victims and the responding agencies will be critiqued on their individual activities and responses to the emergency.

“It is important to periodically conduct these exercises on a large scale so that the different township agencies can fine tune their skills while working in a large group emergency situation,” the TRPD said today. “The results of this operation will be evaluated and any necessary changes to emergency response protocol will be put into place in the future to better protect our residents and first responders.”

This will be a realistic looking exercise and, as such, will appear as if a legitimate event is taking place. We would like the public to be aware of this and understand that it is pre planned and there is no need for alarm.

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