Multiple local agencies came together Dec. 12 to prepare for a crisis that seems to happen a lot these days in the United States.

Midlands Technical College hosted an active shooter training at its Airport Campus in West Columbia, with a multitude of the county’s law enforcement participating, along with Lexington County School District 2 and Lexington-Richland School District 5, fire services and the county coroner’s office, among others.

“The mission of the MTC campus police is to protect the safety and security of persons and property in all Midlands Technical College Campuses through vigilance and professional law enforcement services,” Tim Martin, the college’s police chief, said at a press conference the day of the training.

He said the training was designed to pull together all emergency services and any partnering organizations or agencies, forcing attendees to respond to a continuously evolving hypothetical scenario. They had to discuss how they would respond, how they would be dispatched, the sequence of people arriving, and the responsibilities and roles played by each agency.

Martin said the protocol the training follows is “stop the killing, stop the dying, evacuate the innocent,” explaining that all agencies play a crucial role since one agency is not enough to respond to this kind of scenario.

“I can't predict the future,” Martin said, “but I can tell you that we will be prepared here and our partner agencies that participate in it today. That's what they're trying to do.”

The scenarios used based on what has been seen across the country in regard to ever-growing mass shooting statistics. Martin said it’s unfortunate that schools have to prepare for these situations, but he added that he is proud of everyone coming together to work toward a common goal.

Martin, a retired Army veteran, joined the college’s campus police as their chief in the spring of this year, bringing 20 years of police experience to the job. He told guests he didn’t start deep-diving into active shooter training until two and a half years ago.

Midlands Tech has six campuses spread around Richland, Lexington and Fairfield counties. The next training is active shooter training is slated for Jan. 13 at the Beltline Campus in Columbia.