Fake ricin letter at center of realistic emergency scenario at Missouri Capitol

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Missouri Department of Public Safety conducted a realistic emergency scenario of a suspicious package being dropped off at the Missouri Capitol Wednesday morning.

The exercise plans involved first responders from Missouri Capitol Police, the Jefferson City Fire Department and Cole County EMS.

The State Emergency Management Agency coordinated and designed the event. The agency also brought in evaluators to monitor each department's handling during the exercise. The last full-scale suspicious package exercise was five years ago.

Due to how difficult it is to plan a full-scale exercise, exercises are normally smaller in-person discussions with agencies discussing what their role would be in a scenario.

The press release adds that this exercise was planned ahead of time and not related to last week's suspicious package incident.

"We've been planning this for nearly a year, started physically meeting with the various agencies at the beginning of this 2024," Missouri Capitol Police Chief Zim Schwartze said. "Ironically, we had the real thing first and then the exercise this week."

In this scenario, a standard letter envelope filled with white powder imitating ricin was left open on a table in an empty Capitol hearing room after a meeting.

The exercise started a little before 9 a.m. and since this was a full-scale exercise, every agency participated in the event. Missouri Capitol Police got the initial call and contained the area, and the Jefferson City Fire Department and Cole County EMS arrived at the scene for initial testing

"We work very, very well together on a daily basis so we're very fortunate to have a positive working relationship, Schwartze said. "We know who to call, we know who is going to respond to what their duties are."

The exercise ended around 11 a.m. After this, the agencies debriefed and evaluated how the exercise went.

"This isn't the end of it, this is now updating any manuals we have in place, any guidelines that we have, making sure that all agencies are on board that if their procedures have changed," Schwartze said. "If the FBI or fire or EMS want something different, that we note that in the updated manual."