11 hours ago
30 agencies get into the Illinois River near East Peoria for training exercises
EAST PEORIA, Ill (WMBD) — If you were driving over the Murray Baker Bridge and happened to see a bunch of armed men in boats, don't worry. It's just a training drill.
Some 30 agencies including the Peoria Police Department, the Illinois State Police and the Peoria County Sheriff's Office were involved in a daylong joint maritime training exercise Monday.
Basing out of EastPort Marina, the groups, under the auspices of the Illinois Law Enforcement Alarm System, practiced and discussed boarding drills on commercial vessels, fire on watercraft, sonar operations and dive operations.
The idea was to bring the agencies together and familiarize them with the Illinois river system and the hazards that can arise from potential threats. Among the teams involved from the various agencies were divers as well as those trained in Explosive Ordinance Demolition.
James Middlemas, who is the chief deputy of the Peoria County Sheriff's Office, is also the commander of the ILEAS team at the riverfront.
'With such a vast river system that we have here. There are a lot of chemical plants, there's a lot of nasty stuff that is being transported along on this river,' he said. 'So, we want to be able to, if someone were with bad intention, were to get a hold of some of those things, we want to practice and be able to know how we would respond to such a situation.'
Middlemas said the groups will spend the first part of the day 'just getting acquainted and understanding what that norm is getting used to being on the water.' Later, he said, 'we'll start throwing some of those other things at them later on to be aware of.'
Peoria Police Lt. Mike Johnston said it's a good thing to do occasionally.
'Our day-to-day operations don't usually involve the Illinois River,' Johnston said. 'So, any time we get our specialized assets together to participate in an exercise on the river is an important task for us.'
Middlemas feels it is a great opportunity to work with other agencies on possible threats.
'[It's a] great opportunity for all of us to kind of unify forces and see how we would combat something like this.' Middlemas said.
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