Las Vegas PD speak at day two of Tennessee Emergency Preparedness Conference

JACKSON, Tenn. — “The time to prepare is now because these incidents are happening more frequently,” Capt. Nick Farese with the Las Vegas Police Department said.

Capt. Farese  spoke at day two of the Tennessee Emergency Preparedness Conference Thursday, telling first responders what their department has learned since the shooting at a country music festival in 2017.

“The collaborative training that we have and the partnerships that we have across the board with all emergency service personnel,” Farese said.

But he says their partnerships reach further than just first responders.

“Our hotels, our security forces at hotels, the relationship with key community stakeholders and elected officials, having them all come together in a time of chaos, and it work fluidly is definitely important,” Farese said

And Farese not only discussed the deadliest mass shooting on U.S. soil, 58 people being killed at the country music festival last October, but even just this year a shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, where 11 people were killed, and even just a few weeks ago the shooting at a bar in California where 12 people were killed.

Farese says it’s a not a question of if one of these shootings will happen, but when.

“And how prepared you are to handle it will ultimately determine what your success is in the future moving forward,” Farese said.

Another aspect people don’t always think about is what happens after the incident.

“It’s dealing with the aftermath that will last days, weeks, months and even years that, as communities, we need to get better at,” Farese said.

He hopes attendees will hear about something they aren’t doing and act on it.