Active Shooter Response Training

Frank Borelli Editor-in-Chief Officer.com Be warned: I'm getting up on my soapbox.  As one of the few "outside" officers who responded to the tragedy at Virginia Tech last spring, and as a trainer for Active Shooter/Immediate Response tactics, I try to pay attention to spree shooting events such as the recent one in Illinois.  What amazes me still, and prompted me to write this blog entry, was how training with regard to such events seems to be losing focus. What do I mean?  The Active Shooter / Immediate Response (AS/IR) training boom started after the public outcry in reaction to the police response at Columbine.  All over the country agencies began training their officers in AS/IR.  There were a couple of issues with the level of training delivered, but we all know law enforcement is predominantly reactive in nature.  We trained sufficiently to address the public outcry. Columbine was in 1999.  Contemporary response tactics would have been fantastic if they'd been used at Columbine.  They WERE used at Virginia Tech and Cho still managed to kill 30 people in Norris Hall.  This was in no way the fault of the police response.  You don't get a better response than two fully equipped SWAT Teams on scene in approximately two minutes.  Still, the VA Tech event demonstrated that we probably need to evolve our outlook and tactics again. With all that in mind I had to wonder if we're even keeping up on the "standard" AS/IR training.  So, I posted the poll question on the Officer.com homepage.  The question was, "When did you last have Active Shooter / Immediate Response training?"  As I type this, 441 answers / votes have been posted.  Here's the breakdown: 1% had attended AS/IR training within the past 30 days. 9% had attended AS/IR training within the past 90 days. 18% had attended AS/IR training within the past six months. 22% had attended AS/IR training within the past year. 17% had attended AS/IR training within the past three years. 10% attended AS/IR training more than three years ago (which means it's been three to eight years) 19% have never had AS/IR training at all. There is some good and bad information in those numbers.  I am heartened to see that 10% of the recipients have had AS/IR training in the past 90 days. It surprises me and makes me proud in my profession to see that a full 50% have had AS/IR training within the past year. That's all the good news. The other side of the coin is that 29% of the respondents either haven't ever had AS/IR training or have had it more than three years ago.  That's a scary statistic and I'll tell you why:  our country suffered more Active Shooter events in the past two years (2006 & 2007) than we did in the previous ten years (1995-2005) combined.  The number of Active Shooter events each year seems to be accellerating - while we focus our training on other things. I encourage you - if you're not in that top 50% who have received AS/IR training in the past year - to seek it out.  Read about it.  Learn the history of it and use your experience and imagination to develop new response tactics.  Discuss those with veteran officers, instructors, tactical officers, etc.  Make this a topic of discussion that doesn't go away.  Why?  Because one day it may be YOUR CHILD's life that you save.  Beyond that: we ALL took an oath that involved protecting those who can't protect themselves.  We should take that oath seriously.  Do you?

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