Pocatello Airport holds training exercise

It’s a situation that no one wants to think about but it’s on everyone’s mind. A normal day at the airport takes a turn as two men with guns force their way past security and take hostages. That was the situation for the training drill today at the Pocatello Regional Airport.

Corporal Matt Schutes said that the drill gives all the agencies involved a chance to work together.

“The biggest thing for the drill today is having that joint cooperation. Being able to put different, like TSA and Poky PD together so that if something really happens, we’ve been able to train with those guys and work with them.”

Thursday was the first time the Pocatello Police Department had run an exercise of the sort and Schutes views it as a huge step forward.

“We spend a lot of time talking about things that could happen and it’s really easy to sit down and talk about it and put it on a whiteboard or on a PowerPoint and say this is how we would do it,” he explained.

The chance to run the operations with the SWAT teams, as if it were the real thing, gives them a chance to see what works well and what doesn’t.

The results of the drill will provide information that will benefit both law enforcement and the airport.

The airport’s security coordinator, Kristy Heinz, said that she had “no doubt” that the drill would improve situational approaches on both sides.

“This drill is definitely going to give us some valuable information, ways to change our procedures, or update our procedures, and help keep all of our passengers and employees safe,” Heinz said.

Heinz knows the airport like the back of her hand and feels that this drill will allow officers and the SWAT team to negotiate the airport’s security measures.

“How do they get through doors? Most of our doors are locked. How do you get to non-public areas,” she asked. “Where are all the gates, how do we access this portion of the airport versus this portion and what do we need to do. Where can we put people?”

And the answers to those questions will be a difference maker if a real situation ever arises.

“Knowing that, okay we’ve done training at the airport, we understand what access points we have, how can get in, how we can get out,” Schutes said. “And knowing that ahead of time instead of having to come out here for the very first time in a real-life scenario and having to deal with it.”