Mock Terror Drills Being Held in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach.

The Southeast Regional Domestic Security Task Force and Urban Area Security Initiative will be hosting Operation Heat Shield III, a regional complex coordinated terrorist attack initiative, focused on advancing whole community and regional partnerships by collaborating across jurisdictional boundaries and multi-disciplinary entities.

Recent terrorist incidents highlight an emerging threat known as complex coordinated terrorist attacks. Operation Heat Shield III offers regional first responders a series of unique and realistic drills designed around real-world scenarios that test unified command capabilities. Since March of 2019, tabletop exercises, designed to identify gaps in regional plans, have been conducted at Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties’ Emergency Operations Centers.

The full-scale exercise component will begin with a simultaneous kick-off scenarios at Port Miami, Port Everglades, and Port of Palm Beach. The drills are scheduled at 19 venues throughout the region, supported by thousands of participants and volunteers. Teams will be lead to a series of unique scenarios at various venues throughout each county that are designed to test specific capabilities. Operation Heat Shield III is the region’s first significant exercise series to focus on the multidisciplinary command and control capabilities of municipal specialty teams.

Operation Heat Shield III will help reduce the region’s vulnerability to a complex coordinated terrorist attack and further the ability of county and local partners to implement training programs and initiatives designed to improve terrorism response capabilities. The partnership and participation in Operation Heat Shield III ensures that we are better prepared to mitigate, respond to, and recover from a terrorist attack.

This exercise is scheduled to take place in the area of Port Miami, between the hours of 6:00 p.m., and 6:00 a.m. There will be an increased presence of participating law enforcement personnel and equipment in this area during the exercise.


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