With more than 1,000 military and civilian workers on a site in North Suffolk, the Navy has become an important part of the community for this city, which has no port facilities and whose navigable waters include a shallow, muddy river and a couple of creeks.

Suffolk was struck hard by the closure of Joint Forces Command in 2011, but hard work and a strong belief that the former JFCOM facility continued to be a good place for a military command resulted in four different naval commands coming in to take the place of the departed military installation.

Naval Network Warfare Command, NNWC Global Network Operations Center Detachment, Navy Cyber Defense Operations Command and Navy Cyber Forces now occupy much of the space JFCOM had used, and about 1,000 military and civilian employees work there each day.

Setting aside the potential high-profile security risks to which such commands could be subject — risks we’d all expect are being managed at a very high level of government, aided by folks whose real names we’d never expect to know — the simple fact of having a thousand people together in one space is the kind of thing that recent history shows can be an enticement for trouble.

Recognizing the potential tragedy that could be caused, for example, by an active shooter loose in the Global Network Operations and Security Center building in North Suffolk, officials from the Navy recently organized a training opportunity with the organization that would likely be first to respond in the case of such a problem — the Suffolk Police Department.

It was a chance for the two organizations to get to know one another, to learn a bit about the problems that could be encountered in such a situation and to figure ways to overcome those problems.

“It’s a shame that we live in a world that requires us to be ready to respond to such a scenario,” Capt. Sean Heritage, NCDOC’s commanding officer, said in a report from the Navy about the exercise. “However, since we do, it’s our responsibly to ensure we are prepared to do just that.”

Indeed. It’s good to know that the U.S. Navy recognizes and respects the responsibility Suffolk police have, as well. But it’s especially encouraging to see that the two organizations can work so well together.

We all hope, of course, there will be no need for the kind of training on which the Navy and Suffolk police collaborated recently. But if such a potential tragedy ever unfolds in Suffolk, we’ll all take comfort in the knowledge of that advance collaboration.