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ST. LOUIS (KTVI)- The St. Louis Police Department and the city of St. Louis will conduct a large scale, real-world training exercise on Saturday, February 20, at around 10:00am. Most of the exercise will take place inside a building in the 5700 block of Wilson in The Hill neighborhood, but other locations will also be used.

The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department is calling Saturday`s action a, "World Training Exercise." It is a chance to test officers under pressure, evaluating how they respond to critical situations.

"After we saw what happened in Paris, after we saw what happened in San Bernardino, I wanted to make sure our police department was prepared." said Chief Sam Dotson.

It's the images we hope we never see in St. Louis. They are the types of tragedies that can happen anywhere, terrorism, a mass shooting, and St. Louis is no exception.

Chief Sam Dotson hopes to learn just how prepared his department is. The Chief will reveal more details about the training Saturday. We know exercises will begin Saturday morning at 9:45am and include various locations throughout the city of St. Louis.

"So we`re doing a real world exercise tomorrow (Saturday) around terrorism around active shooters. That`s going to make us better prepared than we are." said Chief Sam Dotson.

The Department tells us the goal of the training is to evaluate their preparedness and measure the effectiveness of the response. The idea is to determine what officers do well, and assess what areas need improvement.

"I think it`s a great opportunity, we're modeling it after what New York has done and what LA has done. We`ll have more about it Saturday."

Agencies participating in the training exercise include Special Operations, St. Louis Police Academy Staff, Traffic Safety, District Overlay Officers, Mobile Reserve/S.W.A.T., Bomb and Arson, Intelligence, Hostage Response Team, St. Louis County Police TACT Officers, St. Louis Fire Department, Controllers and Evaluators and St. Louis Police Explorers.

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Vehicle traffic in the 5700 block of Wilson will be limited from 10:30am-2pm during Saturday’s exercise. We apologize for the inconvenience. — St. Louis, MO Police (@SLMPD) February 19, 2016

The goal of the exercise is to evaluate our preparedness & effectiveness of our response so if a critical incident occurred, we can act. — St. Louis, MO Police (@SLMPD) February 19, 2016

There are multiple safeguards in place to ensure the safety of participants, spectators and the general public. Safety is our #1 priority. — St. Louis, MO Police (@SLMPD) February 19, 2016

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