Local first responders will conduct a two-day Emergency Exercise on Wednesday to simulate a terrorism emergency.
One of the participating agencies is the San Diego County Sheriff's Department.
Sheriff William D. Gore told NBC 7 why it's so important have drills like this, in order to prevent terrorist attacks like the ones in Europe from happening in San Diego.
"I think when you see this worldwide coverage it makes the exercise we’re doing tomorrow even more important, relevant," said Gore.
Gore says that the exercise will simulate a terrorism emergency, with about 40 different agencies working together. The exercise will simulate a multi-prong terrorist attack at three different locations in San Diego on the first day.
“We’re light years ahead of where we were 15 years ago on 9/11,” said Gore. “We have enlisted all the 900,000 local law enforcement in our counterterrorism efforts which we really hadn’t done back in 9/11. We’re in good shape.”
On the second day, the first responders will work to coordinate the 11 emergency operation centers to see how they all perform. Crews will make sure the communication is strong and the chain of command is working, said Gore.
But how can we prevent terrorist attacks when the methods of attack appear increasingly random and erratic?
"The random ones we’ve seen, the attacks with knives or hammers like we saw today, driving a truck into traffic...Your imagination is kind of the limit for how you prepare for these types of activities,” said Gore. “I think our real challenge is identifying these people that are in our communities.”
Gore says they utilize joint terrorism tax forces, to bring together federal, state and local resources. That way local law enforcement can take a spare piece of intelligence or information from San Diego, and compare it with a piece of intelligence from overseas.
We didn't have that kind of widespread teamwork and various mechanisms in place back when 9/11 happened, said Gore. So, there's a much bigger network of communication working to break up terrorist plots.
“That doesn’t mean there’s not risk. There’s risk anytime—we live in an open free society and there’s challenges and risks that come with that,” said Gore. “I try to tell people when I talk to them, we can’t protect ourselves into a police state. We have to accept a certain amount of risk.”
Gore reminded the community to work with law enforcement so they're better prepared to keep everyone safe. If you see something, do say something.
“We have to be prepared, share information, be cautious. But not change our lifestyle,” said Gore. “And to the extent we do, to try, you know, out of fear of these terrorist attacks, the terrorists win. We can’t let that happen.”
To keep matters in perspective, Gore says San Diegans should be aware that they are probably more at risk of danger when they are driving on the freeway.
“Trust me, you’re in much greater danger when you drive on the I-5 or the I-15 than you are of being killed in a terrorist attack," said Gore. “That doesn’t mean we don’t take that seriously or don’t share information, but we have to go about our lives too.”
Photo Credit: NBC 7