The other day I was speaking with a current law enforcement officer and SWAT team member about the recent school shooting that happened on Feb. 14 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. No doubt you’re familiar with the criticism some law enforcement are facing surrounding their action (or inaction) in response to the shooting. If you’re not familiar, check out our newest column, On Your Six, from our Editorial Director Lt. Frank Borelli addressing this issue.
During my conversation with this SWAT officer, he very candidly told me that he believes this shooting has caused many agencies to go back and look at the training and the policies they have in place. “We [law enforcement] are not going to do anything we haven’t been trained to do. So, what is that training? There is no standardization in this,” the SWAT officer told me.
Solo entries were not something frequently written down and taught to law enforcement, the SWAT officer said, but if there is an active shooter scenario occurring, at what point does law enforcement ignore training and engage the shooter? A shift is happening. “Officers used to be taught to do what it takes to go home at the end of the day to their families. Well, if people are being murdered and killed, you may not go home to your families and that’s a dramatic shift for the majority of officers who go answer calls.”
Indeed, I anticipate we’ll be seeing an increase in training and policy changes in departments in the coming months. We may also be seeing an increase in technology usage to help bridge the communication between school officials and law enforcement agencies. A few technologies come to mind that already do this. For example, school teachers and staff can wear an AiRISTA Flow B4 badge tag, a location-based alert security system. In the event of an emergency, wearers can send an alert if immediate help is needed, initiate a lockdown and notify law enforcement of a threat in seconds. When I saw the technology in action last year, the exact location of everyone wearing the badge appeared on a computerized school map available at dispatch, giving dispatchers and officers the ability to know where a lockdown would be initiated. Additionally, some departments are using laser scanners to map the layouts of schools, increasing the SWAT operators’ knowledge of building entrances which can save time and lives. For more on this topic, head to Officer.com/20993915 for Lt. Borelli’s blog post, “Time Equals Lives.”
For now, there’s a lot to read in this month’s issue of LET. I encourage you to grab a cup of coffee and try to steal a little time away from day-to-day duties. This article takes a close look at night vision and thermal technologies for SWAT, and this story profiles an Arkansas agency that mines Bitcoins to combat crimes on the “deep web.” I also recommend clicking here to read about how some LE agencies are combating the current opioid epidemic.
Stay safe out there, readers.
Adrienne
