Police Presence at Chavez Elementary is Routine Training

The Long Beach Police Department is conducting critical incident training on the campus of Chavez Elementary Wednesday, bringing with it the appearance of heavy police presence at the school. 

Police said that residents should expect to see numerous officers and police cars on campus during exercises that are expected to last until around 6 p.m. Gunfire may also be heard during the training exercises, police said.

The school is currently on spring break and only police personnel are on campus, according to Long Beach police spokesperson Nancy Pratt.

"It is to help our officers of course prepare for a critical incident on the school's campus," Pratt told Patch. "We do this fairly regularly." 

Pratt said that the police department made sure to get the word out to area residents about the training through Nixle alerts, Facebook posts, Twitter posts and in person contact.

"We actually canvassed the area surrounding the school with flyers last week so that they were fully aware what was going on in their neighborhoods," Pratt said. "We are doing everything we can to make sure that the community out there is aware that this is a safe training operation."

Pratt said the training will encompass a variety of scenarios including an active shooter scenario. In the past, similar training was conducted on campuses such as Jordan High School and Long Beach City College.

"We are training not only for college campuses and high school campuses but elementary campuses as well," Pratt said.

City News Service also contributed to this report.