RCMP dispatchers poured out onto the wintry streets of Prince George, Tuesday morning, leaving their 911 phones unattended.
It was not job action, not an emergency, it was a drill.
While the staff of the Operational Communication Centre (or OCC, based at North District RCMP headquarters on 5th Avenue) were ensuring their evacuation skills were sharp, other agencies in other parts of the city and province were making sure their support skills were sharp.
If anyone in the Prince George region needed to call 911 during that drill, they would never have known the difference, said Pat Korum, operations team leader in Prince George.
"Southeast District OCC in Kelowna looked after the calls," she said. "And if they have to evacuate, we take theirs as well. It is a seamless system; the caller is not disrupted in any way. They have the capability of creating files for all our detachments in the northern region, and the same goes for us and their communities, because of the new technologies we have in use.
"The same for ambulance [dispatched out of Kamloops] and fire department [dispatched out of Prince George Fire Hall No. 1], and those agencies were also informed in advance of our drill so they could test their processes as well."
All regional 911 calls go first through the RCMP's Prince George OCC. It is RCMP staff who direct the calls to ambulance and fire departments when the caller indicates which emergency responder is needed.
Korum said the evacuation drill is done about twice a year, but it has been more frequent in the past. There are four watches in the RCMP shift rotation, and all need a chance to practice the protocols for the unlikely possibility that the emergency is inside their own building.
"This time it wasn't just OCC staff, the whole North District building was evacuated," she said. "[Acting commander Supt.] Rod Booth was one of the few who knew this was coming, most in the building did not know it applied to everybody, so I am quite happy to say it worked. Everyone got out to to the place they were supposed to be, it was done very quickly, and everyone was back to work basically 20 minutes later."
Korum was also using this experience to inform her future plans. She was recently promoted to commander of the OCC in Chilliwack and will be moving there soon.
"We hope we never have to use these skills, but it's nice to know the processes are there and they work," she said. "We hope it gives our employees confidence,and gives the public confidence that when emergencies arise, even for ourselves, we know what to do. That's why you do drills and training and put the work in, and we saw today that it is working."
