Pre-Incident Rehearsals and Drills
Why Drills Matter for Control Room Operators
Emergencies rarely give warnings. When they strike, there is no time to flip through manuals or debate what to do. That is why rehearsals and drills are not just “compliance exercises,” they are the training ground where you learn to think fast, communicate clearly, and keep control under pressure.
Think of it like football: you don’t wait until the match to practise your moves. You rehearse, repeat, and refine so that when the game starts, your reactions are automatic. The control room is no different, drills are your practice matches, the real incident is the championship.
Remember: The way you train is the way you will perform.
Real-World Example: Office Tower Evacuation Drill
In a central London office tower, the SCR team practised a full evacuation drill with fire wardens and building staff.
Operators acknowledged the alarm within seconds,
Radioed ground staff with clear instructions,
Monitored stairwell cameras to track crowd movement,
Logged all timings for supervisors.
Because of repetition, the building was cleared in under five minutes.
Tip: Frequent drills don’t just prepare you, they prove your site’s credibility to regulators and emergency services.
Key Benefits of Pre-Incident Drills
Speed under pressure: Drills reduce hesitation and train your instincts.
Stronger coordination: Operators practise giving and receiving clear instructions.
Proven compliance: Logs from drills provide evidence for audits, SIA inspections, and insurance reviews.
Increased confidence: Staff panic less when they’ve practised realistic scenarios.
Better resilience: Drills highlight weak spots in procedures before real incidents expose them.
Tip: Write logs during drills as if they could end up in court, because one day, they might.
Common Types of Drills in the Control Room
Fire and Evacuation: Testing speed of alarm response and building clearance.
Lockdown Scenarios: Simulating hostile intruders or terror threats.
Medical Emergencies: Escalating quickly to paramedics and first-aid staff.
System Failures: Practising CCTV, alarm, or radio downtime.
Multi-Threat Situations: For example, a fire alarm while a restricted door is forced open.
Scenario: Imagine your CCTV goes dark during a fire drill, and at the same moment, a contractor is stuck at a locked gate. What do you prioritise? Only rehearsals prepare you for these “double pressure” moments.
Pitfalls When Drills Are Ignored
Drills fail when operators treat them as routine.
Logging lazily (“fire drill completed”) instead of recording actions and times.
Predicting drill times, so staff “play along” instead of reacting naturally.
Ignoring escalation procedures because “it’s only practice.”
Example: A shopping centre had repeated drills but never tested radio backups. When their real system failed during a flood, they couldn’t coordinate properly, costing hours of response time.
Tip: Treat drills like the real thing, shortcuts in practice become disasters in reality.
Building Realism into Drills
Effective drills feel messy, stressful, and unpredictable, just like real incidents.
Run drills at different times of day to test shift handovers.
Throw in surprises like multiple alarms or missing staff.
Involve external responders like fire brigades or police when possible.
End every drill with a no-blame debrief where lessons are shared openly.
Example: In a transport hub exercise, operators faced a simulated suspicious package AND a CCTV outage. It forced them to rely on teamwork and radios, exactly as they would in a real terror threat.
Tip: Easy drills create overconfidence, tough drills create resilience.
The “Muscle Memory” Effect
Rehearsals aren’t just about knowledge, they’re about training your body and mind to respond automatically. This is known as muscle memory.
When you log alarms the same way every time, you’ll do it instinctively in real incidents.
When you practise clear radio calls, your voice stays steady under stress.
When you run evacuation timing drills, you know exactly how long it takes without guessing.
Example: A rail station operator once said, “When the bomb threat call came, I didn’t think. I just did what we’d drilled 50 times.” That automatic reaction saved lives.
Tip: The goal of drills is not just knowledge, it’s instinct.
Drills as Team-Building Tools
Drills are also where teams learn trust.
Operators learn how supervisors expect information.
Patrol staff learn what the control room needs to know.
Everyone sees how their role fits into the bigger picture.
Example: After a joint drill at a hospital, an operator said, “I realised the patrols rely on us to stay calm, just as much as we rely on them to act fast.” That shift in perspective made the whole team stronger.
Tip: Drills are not just about ticking boxes, they’re about building a team that functions like one machine.
Training Today, Protecting Tomorrow
Drills are not box-ticking, they are the moments where you prepare for the worst in order to deliver your best. Every simulated alarm you log, every urgent radio call you practise, every decision you rehearse under pressure, is an investment in safety when real lives are on the line.
Takeaway: In real incidents, you won’t magically perform better than your practice, you will perform exactly as you trained. Commit to drills, take them seriously, and you turn routine practice into real-world readiness.
