Full Notification

Cal Guard Military Police to Join
El Cerrito Police in Dirty Bomb Exercise

RICHMOND, Calif. – About 200 California National Guard, civilian law enforcement and firefighting personnel will come together at the Richmond Fire Training Center on Saturday, April 11, for an emergency-response exercise hosted by the El Cerrito Police Department. The exercise will involve a coordinated interagency response to the discovery of a “dirty bomb.”

The more than 100 soldiers and airmen belonging to the Cal Guard’s 49th Military Police Brigade will conduct decontamination, medical, explosive ordinance disposal and security training throughout the daylong exercise. Joining them will be several civilian public safety agencies including the El Cerrito Police and Richmond Fire Departments and the Contra Costa County Office of Emergency Services.

“This is a great opportunity for us all to get together and explore the resources each agency offers,” said Lt. Steve Bonini, Field Operations commander for the El Cerrito Police Department. “The important thing is that we get this training done now so we’ll be prepared to work together should an incident occur.”

Based in Fairfield, California, the 49th Military Police Brigade is home to FEMA’s Region IX Homeland Response Force (HRF), which is composed of military police, engineers, medical and chemical corps soldiers and airmen. Trained to rapidly respond to both manmade and natural large-scale emergencies, the Cal Guard HRF is responsible for more than 400,000 acres of territory, home to the nearly 40 million residents of California, Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii and U.S. islands and territories across the Pacific Ocean.

“As citizen-soldiers, our guardsmen offer a broad diversity of skills, both military and civilian,” said Col. Peter Cross, commander of the 49th Military Police Brigade. “We train year-round with partner agencies like the El Cerrito Police Department to ensure we’re ready to respond to the communities in which we live and serve.”

Credentialed media interested in covering the exercise should contact Capt. Will Martin, public affairs officer, at 916-799-9525 or [email protected], and should plan to arrive by 10 a.m. at the Richmond Fire Training Center at 3506 Cutting Blvd., Richmond, CA 94804.

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