Snoqualmie Police, FBI host abduction training program this week on Snoqualmie Ridge

By Evan Pappas • April 3, 2017 7:30 am
Snoqualmie Police, pictured here overseeing the 2016 Tanner Jeans Bike Rodeo, will be conducting a child-abduction training exercise on Snoqualmie Ridge all week. Evan Pappas/File Photo
Snoqualmie Police, pictured here overseeing the 2016 Tanner Jeans Bike Rodeo, will be conducting a child-abduction training exercise on Snoqualmie Ridge all week. Evan Pappas/File Photo

Police departments from around the region are in Snoqualmie this week for an FBI-run program designed to train law enforcement agencies how to most efficiently work through a child abduction case.

The program, which began on Monday and runs through Friday, April 7, is both a training class and field exercise program for officers.

Snoqualmie Police Captain Nick Almquist said that while the first three days were in a classroom setting at the Snoqualmie Fire Department, the program will be running live field exercises on Thursday. Officers will go back to the classroom on Friday.

At least 13 police departments will be present at the week-long training event including Redmond, Renton, Federal Way, Skagit County and King County, Almquist said.

“The training class has invited all local law enforcement, 13 to 15 different police agencies, to come to this to learn updated policies and practices on how to conduct them,” he said. “The whole idea behind it is if there is ever an abduction, we can be as thorough as possible.”

On Thursday, the field exercise will be a mock child abduction and investigation procedure, which will have officers out in communities on Snoqualmie Ridge near Cascade View Elementary School, investigating the mock-abduction.

“We are going to be using some neighborhoods around Cascade View, going toward I-90, different areas of those neighborhoods will be utilized as part of the script,” Almquist said. “We wanted to make sure people were aware it’s a drill. If people are seeing increased police activity, it has to do with a mock training exercise and they should just be alert to the fact that we are going to have a lot more activity than normal.”

Community members will also be involved in the program as volunteers, who will help to play the part of people involved in an abduction so officers can train with real community members, he said.

“People in the areas of the community we are going to be utilizing were all sent letters that said ‘if you want to be a volunteer in the process, lease let us know because we would like you to be part of it,’” he said. “Get the community aware of what can happen and also to make it more real.”