ACT Policing tested in Mercury exercise
October 2005
ACT Policing elements across every portfolio were tested from October 17-18 as part of the national counter-terrorism exercise Mercury 05.
In the ACT, the hub of the coordination action was at the Police Operations Centre at the Winchester Police Centre in Belconnen where Commander Steve Lancaster coordinated the response to the emerging crisis which began around 9am on October 18.
The exercise began with an initial report of a bus collision with a van, and numerous casualties - conveniently staged at the AFP's Majura Complex - which prompted a response from the Collision Investigation and Reconstruction Team, Bomb Response Team, Territory Investigations Group detectives and general duties members. Further investigations focussed on a suspicious van also involved in the collision.
Emergency services, with the assistance of ACTION Buses, transported 45 people to hospital, some walking "wounded", some in "critical" condition. There were nine "fatalities" in the collision.
Chief Police Officer Audrey Fagan said the operational deployment phase of the exercise at the IDG village was completed at 5.45pm.
"Preliminary indications are that the key objective of joint interagency command, control and coordination was exercised and validated," Ms Fagan said. "I would like to thank all ACT Policing personnel for their efforts in preparing, planning and participating in the exercise and for those who continued their normal community policing work.
"The ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope along with the Opposition Leader, the Police Minister and other members of the Legislative Assembly attended the IDG village and were given a first-hand briefing. It was clear to me there was a high degree of cooperation at the mock collision scene and I thank everyone involved - from the SES volunteers who played roles of the injured to the police volunteers who kept everyone so well fed.
"The exercise has reinforced our operational systems and the connectedness we have with other ACT Government departments and agencies, and our partnership with the Incident Coordination Centre - AFP National, the Australian Government, relevant Australian Government agencies and State and Territory police services.
"The next step will involve a detailed debriefing and feedback from umpires and Exercise Controllers, all of which will bring together lessons to be learnt. It will be important that we consolidate those lessons to continue to build on what are already impressive capabilities here in the ACT.
"On behalf of the Executive Team thank you to all for your work over the past few days," Ms Fagan said in a message to ACT Policing members.
