Letter: Carson City Sheriff active shooter exercise

I have been attending the Citizen's Academy sponsored by the Carson City Sheriff's Office. This 10-week academy is part of Sheriff Furlong's commitment to transparency.

It also gives citizens an opportunity to meet his leadership team and the deputies who work 24/7/365 to keep our community safe. We learned about every aspect of the sheriff’s department - from administration to the coroner to SWAT.

The recent active shooter exercise at Carson High School is an excellent example of Furlong's commitment to using best practices learned from incidents across the county, combined with well trained personnel, teamwork with all agencies and practice!

In addition to the "live" exercise, the department has a great virtual reality training tool that allows officers to practice real life scenarios that provide feedback to the officers in a safe training environment.

This isn't something officers learn a lot about at the training academy and it takes more than one exercise to have a proficient team.

This ongoing commitment and the dedication of our deputies and the sheriff will pay dividends on lives saved in the event of an active shooter. It happened here (long ago) but we all know, no town is 100% safe.

I am thankful for Sheriff Furlong, his leadership and all who serve our community. Further, I support the continued financial support from the board of supervisors for the necessary personnel, new equipment utilizing the latest technology, and training programs to keep our deputies among the best trained in Nevada and our community safe.

Kathy Kneer

Carson City