The Columbia Police Department, in partnership with Stephens College, the Columbia Fire Department, and the University of Missouri Ambulance Service is coordinating a full scale active assailant exercise on Wednesday, Feb. 28 from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. on Stephens College campus.

The exercise will take place in and around the Pillsbury Science Center and Windsor Auditorium buildings. The perimeter around the buildings will be inaccessible to students and citizens during this exercise. There will be a temporary total closure of East Walnut Street between College Avenue and Ripley Street, and a total closure of Ripley Street between East Walnut Street and East Broadway for the exercise.

The objectives of this exercise include:

• Evaluate local response agencies' ability to establish initial command and coordinate on-site incident management operations during an active assailant incident.
• Evaluate local response agencies' ability to establish multi-agency communications and interoperability during an active assailant incident.
• Evaluate local response agencies' ability to effectively triage, treat, and transport all people in need within the affected area during an active assailant incident.
• Evaluate local response agencies' ability to develop and deliver coordinated information to the whole community, including the public, the media, incident management, and responders across agencies and disciplines effectively during an active assailant incident.

"We're incredibly grateful to Stephens College for the opportunity to host this kind of exercise on their campus," said Lt. Lance Bolinger, Special Operations Commander. "Having Stephens provide the space and the role players to effectively execute this exercise is crucial to ensuring we're properly prepared should we ever encounter this type of scenario in Columbia."

Students on campus, motorists, and pedestrians in the area of the exercise should expect to see a number of emergency services operating as if the exercise was a real time incident. Several uniformed law enforcement officers, including the CPD's Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) Team and Crisis Negotiation Team (CNT), as well as uniformed Fire and Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) and emergency services vehicles will be on-site.

We're asking all of our media partners to share this information as widely as possible to help in notifying the public that these are exercises and there is no need to call 9-1-1 or take any other actions.