The Ohio State Highway Patrol partnered with Wright State University’s Division of Tactical Emergency Medicine on Thursday to conduct active shooter and hostage scenarios at the former Showcase Cross Pointe Cinemas on Loop Road in Centerville.

The OSP based its drills on how its SWAT squads would react to a situation similar to the mass shooting that occurred at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., in July.

“It’s no coincidence that this (drill) was done in the old Showcase Cinemas,” said Dr. Brian Springer, the director of the division and an associate professor at the Wright State’s Department of Emergency Medicine. “The training was very specific to the incident in Colorado. The theater aspect and the actual physical plant was great to train in, with its many rooms, corridors and hallways.”

Springer added that the division, which works with more than a half dozen agencies, tailors its training to the needs of the specific agency. The training often mimics actual events in an attempt to learn how to deal with those situations in the future.

The tactics taught Thursday included self-aid and buddy-aid. Those are “medical techniques that they can use to take care of themselves if they are injured, take care of fellow officers if they are injured and take care of a bystander if they are injured,” Springer said.

Tactical medicine and tactical emergency medicine have been growing fields, he said.

“It’s been around as long as law enforcement special operations and S.W.A.T. has been around,” Springer said. “It’s now also for any type of law enforcement officer to go ahead and use.”

The WSU Division of Tactical Emergency Medicine has been in operation for four years.

Responders in the mock training learned many techniques, including the use of a tourniquet constraining device.

“This is a very quick intervention that you can do to save this guy’s life,” he said of a responder using one on an actor patient during the training.

Jill Kelley contributed to this story.