MERIDIAN -- Emergency response agencies from around Idaho and the Pacific Northwest came together Tuesday to work on communication strategies and technology.
Any time different law enforcement agencies work together, often times the key to success is communication.
That's why close to 20 different agencies from across the Northwest gathered in Meridian at Idaho State Police Headquarters to learn about each other’s communication styles and systems to simplify working together in the future.
Officials say a little bit of familiarity with each other’s equipment goes a long way when it comes to accomplishing the overall mission together
"We want the agencies to be able to exercise the equipment that they have and perhaps find gaps that they didn't know existed because when you get on an incident, you never know what you are going to come up against. That's really the focus today, finding things we may or may not have known we've missed," Idaho Military Division spokesman Robert Hugi said.
The event was among the first of its kind in the Northwest. Experts say it is so valuable because there has never really been a time for all the agencies to get together in person to learn from each other and also learn about different technologies agencies may want to add to their department.
The event will Wednesday in Meridian with agencies coming back together to work on real-time simulations to find out what works, and what does not work out in the field.
