NATCHEZ &045; More than 40 first responders and law officers from throughout the region got a crash course Monday and Tuesday in how to help prevent terrorist incidents.

The occasion was the a first-of-its-kind course designed and sponsored by the U.S. Attorney’s offices for both north and south Mississippi.

Law enforcement, fire, medical and emergency management personnel from Adams, Franklin, Jefferson, Lincoln and Claiborne counties met at Copiah-Lincoln Community College’s Natchez campus for the course.

&uot;Most training focuses on dealing with (an incident) after it’s already happened,&uot; said Max Fenn, an intelligence specialist with the U.S. Attorney’s Anti-Terrorism Task Force for the Southern District of Mississippi.

By contrast, the U.S. Attorney’s offices in Mississippi wanted to equip officers to recognize and help prevent terrorism incidents.

But when they sought materials for such training, &uot;we found there wasn’t any curriculum that was already available,&uot; Fenn said.

So the offices set up a curriculum of their own and took it on the road, holding seminars throughout Mississippi.

Natchez is the 10th of 11 cities in the state to receive such PATRIOT training &045; short for Preventive Antiterrorism, Threat Recognition, Interdiction and Operational Techniques.

Although Fenn said he cannot divulge specifics of the course for public safety reasons, he added the course mostly teaches law enforcement and first responders to recognize clues that could signal terrorist activity.

Adams County Sheriff Tommy Ferrell, whose department helped host the training, said such courses are important even for personnel serving in rural areas.

Natchez-Adams, for example, is between two nuclear power plants and is the site of a major transportation crossing, the Mississippi River bridge, Ferrell pointed out.

But if nothing else, he said, &uot;this training is needed for us to have people trained uniformly across the state to deal with possible (terrorist) incidents,&uot; Ferrell said.

The Anti-Terrorism Task Forces were established shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, in response to a mandate from President George W. Bush and Attorney General John Ashcroft.