Three bomb squads, four mobile command posts, an air boat, and a medical helicopter all converged on the OCCC campus on Wednesday, April 16 for Meet Your First Responder Day.
"We had a great turnout," said Ike Sloas, OCCC Director of Safety and Security. "It is nice to be able to show the community the different layers of safety and emergency response available at OCCC."
Safety personnel from Oklahoma City Police and Fire, Oklahoma County Sheriff's Department, Oklahoma Highway Patrol, EMSA, OU Medical Center and even storm chasers from News 9 were at OCCC to show off some of their safety equipment and answer any questions about campus security.
"In this day and time it is important to let the community know what we do to be proactive and keep college campuses safe," said Oklahoma County Sheriff's Deputy Jason Bass.
The event took place on the one-year anniversary of the shootings at Virginia Tech University. After a brief speech from Dr. Paul Sechrist, the clock bells rang 33 times, once for everyone who died in the tragedy.
OCCC safety and security officials also took the opportunity to let students and faculty see firsthand all of the safety upgrades made to the campus in the last year. OCCC has added new cameras, new mobile command vehicles, additional officers and VOIP phone alert systems in the last 18 months.
"We are continually trying to stay ahead of the curve in monitoring the campus and to be able to alert students and staff in an emergency," Sloas said. "We hope we never have a situation where we will need all of these first responders on campus, but we want everyone to know we are here and are ready."
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