LOS ANGELES– The United States Attorney's Office is hosting a conference next week that will bring together first responders and experts who will provide their insights on last year's terrorist attack in San Bernardino and important lessons learned that can be applied to other large-scale incidents.

Importantly, the conference on Tuesday, September 6, will feature discussions on better serving the victim population after a large-scale event. The San Bernardino terror attacks of December 2, 2015 will be the primary case study.

During the conference, experts will provide an overview of the initial response to the San Bernardino attacks, lessons learned from the coordinated response by first responders, the variety of issues that the victims will face, the need for victim-support teams, and how the victim-support teams can be most effective in their unique roles.

“While we hope to never again experience an event like the San Bernardino attack, there are important lessons we can learn and share about responding to such attacks. These lessons can be applied to a variety of incidents that we may face in this district and will help us be more prepared for large-scale events in the future,” said United States Attorney Eileen M. Decker. “The speakers at our conference will highlight the best practices for responding to large-scale incidents, with an important focus on providing services to victims. The victim-oriented presentations will focus on everything from providing the initial medical care to information about court proceedings. Our goal is to increase our ability to provide the maximum available assistance to the victims of such an incident, both during the incident and over the longer term. The victims of such incidents deserve nothing less.”

Speakers at the event will include United States Attorney Eileen M. Decker; San Bernardino Assistant Chief of Police Eric McBride; Dr. Michael Neeki, Chief of Emergency Services at Arrowhead Medical Center and members of the FBI's Victim Services team who responded to the incident in San Bernardino.The event will be on Tuesday, September 6, at the California Endowment Center, 1000 North Alameda Street in downtown Los Angeles.The news media is invited to attend ONLY the opening session of the conference from 8:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.

USAO – California, Central Updated September 2, 2016

Central District of California DOJ / 16-206 / September 2, 2016