When the call comes in to 911 that there is an active threat, the ensuing chaos can be as deadly as the shooter’s aim.
A mix of public agencies — those that stop threats and those that save lives — rush to the scene.
There are two objectives at the scene: neutralize the threat and save those who need help.
The rush to achieve these objectives can feed the chaos without proper planning and training.
Area
law enforcement, fire and rescue, and EMS personnel worked together last week in a mass active threat training exercise.
The scenario was hosted by Temple Fire & Rescue at its training facility at Station 8 along Airport Road on the northwest side of the city and inside a nearby school that was closed for the summer.
The training scenario got real from the moment the call came in that there was an “active shooter.”
Law enforcement personnel rushed to the scene and hammered their way into the school building, tearing through a hardened door.
Officers from multiple law enforcement agencies raced into the building to confront the threat. Once located inside, shots were fired (blanks were used) and the threat was neutralized.
Law enforcement quickly established command in the parking lot outside the school.
Officers inside the building quickly assessed conditions and secured an area where they could hold victims until medical help arrived.
Radio communications were spotty at best inside the building. Officers quickly adapted by sharing cellphone numbers or running outside to relay the status of conditions inside.
Victims were yelling for help as ambulances rolled into the parking lot. On-scene commanders, who had never met, rallied fellow officers to escort medics safely inside the building.
While one “shooter” was down, there was no guarantee there weren’t more threats. Officers staged themselves strategically to protect EMS arriving on scene.
The chaos, as one trainer explained, was effectively being disrupted.
Officers were working with counterparts they had never seen, and medics moved should-to-shoulder with officers they didn’t’ know who walked them into an active crime scene, guns at the ready.
A simple reality set in quickly at the scene — none of the responders could accomplish all the tasks by themselves. The situation quickly forced officers, firefighters and EMS to form a bond of cooperation and trust.
The entire training scenario played out quickly and everyone involved had to make split-second decisions about what they would do to counter the chaos.
The training was real to the extent participants were challenged by on-site trainers, participants were sometimes frustrated, and everyone relied on their training to act in the best interest of fellow emergency responders and the people who needed help.
The training was not fully scripted, and participants were not
told exactly what they were facing inside the school building. When all known victims were safely removed from the school building, the scenario was ended.
In a real active threat situation, officers would have continued operations to secure all areas of the building and then begin an extensive crime scene investigation.
For participants in this training, they were able to head back to the fire station and review how the training played out in real time.
The training exercise wasn’t designed to be a simple scenario, according to Santos Soto, Temple Fire & Rescue public
information officer.
Trainers wanted participants to experience the chaos of what they might face in the real world.
From stepping out of their vehicles on scene to the “live” fire with blanks that neutralized the threat to teenagers covered in fake blood and screaming, participants faced real life
challenges.
“We’re trying to make the training as real as possible so everybody benefits from this,” Soto said.
To help navigate a frantic, ever-changing active threat situation, trainers focused on participants cooperating with other responders. This was a key challenge with people from different agencies and skill sets — officers, firemen and
emergency medical technicians — forced to work together.
“There is a need to come together and work as a team,” Soto said, noting the training last week was the largest number of agencies participating to date.
Michael Chapman, training coordinator for the Waco District of the Texas Department of Public Safety,
said this type of multi-agency training is essential to being prepared for an active threat situation.
“The reason we’re doing this training together with fire and all the other agencies is we train very well as an agency alone,” Chapman said, noting that each agency is accustomed to a certain way of operating on scene.
“Cops work very well alone. Firemen work as a team very well,” Chapman said. “So, we have to work out those issues of cops and firemen forming up teams and working together. Doing training like this really helps.”
The training revealed real-world issues the
agencies and individuals had to work through in real time.
When the call for an active shooter went out, officers from multiple agencies responded. Once on site they had to quickly assume roles of how to get into a locked building, setting up command hierarchy outside the building, coordinating assault response inside the building, securing safe areas and then taking care of the injured after the threat
was neutralized.
Operations — just like in the real world — didn’t’ always go as planned.
Radio communications were quickly interrupted, blocked inside the building where emergency responders had to operate.
There were other challenges such as how to form
two-person teams to escort EMS technicians into and out of the building. Officers adjusted on the fly how to safely guard secured areas where EMS could operate and ensure no unknown threats were missed.
Even though this was training, officers and medical personnel were pushed to respond quickly as trainers guided the flow of what was happening.
The debriefing afterward was an opportunity to share what was challenging and what went well.
Clear lines of communication, a necessity in any active threat situation, were highlighted as a challenge.
Chapman praised officers for quickly responding during the scenario
with setting up responsibilities on scene and adapting to communications problems by working out a cellphone chain to reach the main communications center to get medical help moving onto the scene.
Derek Roper, a Temple Fire & Rescue emergency medical technician who helped develop the training, said trainers saw excellent performances despite a purposely designed chaotic scene.
“Everybody did the right thing,” he said.
While there were dozens of officers and EMS responders participating in the scenario, trainers said there would be even more in a real-world situation.
“We have created a scenario-based situation
where we (provide) limited resources,” Chapman said. In a true active shooter situation, Chapman noted, almost unlimited resources from supporting agencies would converge on the scene to help.
The active threat scenario pushed participants to hone their skills, and the school
building setting was a welcome challenge for one agency.
Salado ISD police officers took part in the training for the first time. The department, which serves about 300 staff members and 2,400 students, was formed last summer.
“Our primary function is to make sure those kids and staff have a safe environment,”
Gary McHone, Salado ISD chief of police, a 30-year veteran of law enforcement, said.
McHone, who brought two of his officers, believes it is important for the young agency to train as much as possible.
“I don’t think you can train too much no matter how long you’ve been in law enforcement,” McHone said. “Every
day is a learning opportunity. We can’t allow ourselves to get complacent in our day-to-day activities.
“We always have to think, ‘What if there is that eventuality where a threat enters one of our campuses, and we need to effectively deal with it?’”
McHone said that 99.9% of the time it is business as usual for
his department and law enforcement acts as an ongoing deterrent. The Temple training, he said, complements the technology and response plans his department has in place for any need to respond to trauma and threats.
“We feel a lot more confident when we come to a scenario like this that in the eventuality that something (does go wrong) we have the tools and the resources working with outside agencies,”
McHone said.
With more than 200 emergency responders participating across several trainings last week, Temple Fire & Rescue is planning more training scenarios in the future.
“We’re really thankful for the partnership we’ve got with Temple Fire & Rescue to conduct trainings,” Chapman said. “These guys
have been really helpful.”
