This weekend, throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, the Urban Shield event takes place. A major training event for teams from emergency response and public safety jurisdictions, it draws many from Alameda County and several of the other surrounding Northern California counties, some from across the United States, and a couple from out of the country. Billed as “a real-life multidisciplinary training exercise”, each team works through a series of emergency scenarios of various sorts that have been designed and crafted by local jurisdictions and sponsors. They are challenged by the scenarios one by one, non-stop over a 48 hour period.

This is an important opportunity for our public emergency response teams to experience events in the field that come as close as possible to real crisis situations. They face challenges both physical and intellectual to execute on their training in preparation for dangerous incidents and public safety threats. Since they are scored on their success in each scenario, there is a winner at the end of the long weekend–a team that proves itself most capable of meeting each of the exercise obstacles.

The Alameda County Sheriff’s Office hosts Urban Shield, now in it’s 3rd year, supported by Homeland Security Grant funds. The program is being adopted by other jurisdictions across the United States and in other countries.

RebelVox is proud to be a sponsor and technology provider for the 2009 event.

If you want to learn more about the Urban Shield event, click to their website.