Through a grant from the US Department of Homeland Security local safety workers and university administration at UW Stout spent Thursday morning using a three-dimensional model city to practice their response in an emergency.

They did that, using what's called the incident command system.

"This is an eye opening experience for most of them because a lot of people that we have in this are non law enforcement and not fire personnel, we've got our campus administrators here," Stout Police Officer Donald Gjetson said.

In addition to working with the police, Gjetson is also incident command instructor. He says Thursday's drill was the culmination of a three-day workshop, which teaches public safety, police, fire and first-response personnel how to work together most efficiently.

Thanks to the model, a miniature city, Gjetson says the scenario seemed real. With officers in the field and agency leaders at the command post.

He says the model travels to campuses throughout the country and though it represented UW Stout on Thursday, it can be any University.

Communications Director Doug Mell says with 85-hundred students on campus, the hands on training is vital.

"Things happen on campus, things happen in the city, things happen in the county and I think because of this planning we'll have a lot more tools to deal with an incident, if and when they do occur," he said.

Mell says UW Stout is a city, within a city, meaning the University often works closely with other local agencies. He says training like this helps develop the cooperation they'll need during a critical situation.

And though he admits you can never be prepared for everything, he says Stout is getting close.

Simulation-training drills have been held at universities across the country, but UW stout is the first campus in Wisconsin to take part.