Safe World Games owed, in part, to CDP training

FEMA’s Center for Domestic Preparedness (CDP) is among the organizations being credited with ensuring an incident-free 2022 World Games earlier this month.  

That’s because the CDP provided training to more than 1,200 emergency managers, firefighters, law enforcement officers and medical specialists in Birmingham and Jefferson County, Alabama in direct preparation for event, which drew athletes and spectators to the area from more than 100 countries around the globe.   

The training was conducted both on the CDP campus in nearby Anniston, Alabama, and online, and covered executive and line fire law enforcement and healthcare response to CRBNE (Chemical, Radiological, Biological, Nuclear and Explosives) and other incidents.

“The responders who attended CDP training allowed us to perform at a higher level,” added Jim St. John, a Jefferson County emergency manager who worked with numerous response agencies to prepare for the games.           

“The responders all had increased capabilities, which helped us make it safer for everyone involved,” he said.

The training was not out of the ordinary for the CDP.

The CDP routinely supports large cities and metropolitan areas as they prepare to host National Special Security Events, which typically draw large crowds and television audiences and are considered by the Department of Homeland Security to be potential targets for terrorism and other criminal activity.

Since 2020, that has included training emergency managers and responders in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Charlotte, North Carolina, which hosted the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, respectively, and the cities of Miami and Tampa, Florida, and Inglewood, California, which hosted the Super Bowl.

For more information about the CDP, to include how to apply for training, state, local, tribal and territorial responders should visit the CDP website at https://cdp.dhs.gov.

All CDP training is free and for those attending on-campus training includes the cost of transportation, lodging and meals.