Police Training Excercise
Our correspondent, Christian Cheshire, is a criminal justice student at Marymount University in Virginia, with plans to go into law enforcement.
Among the many challenges modern police officers and federal agents alike must face, the deadliest threat that has emerged is mass shootings. From Columbine to Virginia Tech to the recent massacre in Connecticut, a target of choice of the mass shooter is often a school. This is due to a variety of factors, one of which is the fact that schools are filled with unarmed, innocent civilians. While a variety of different proposals have been introduced, one solution that is currently being utilized by law enforcement and school officials is practicing the Active Shooter Scenario.
The Active Shooter Scenario is a training session first enacted following the Virginia Tech Shooting. This training takes place at a school where several volunteers act as “victims” who pretend to be wounded, dead, or in a panic. Also included is a volunteer or volunteers from local police who act as the “shooters.” Further, local SWAT (Special Weapons Assault Team) would be deployed with full EMS (Emergency Medical personal) and fire departments. The goal for this training is to have all the mentioned departments work in coordination to remove the armed threat and limit the casualties count.
I have done four of these Active Shooter Scenarios during my three years with the Fairfax County Police Explorers, which have given me firsthand experience on how SWAT, EMS, and local fire departments would respond to a school shooting.
On January 12, 2013, I had the opportunity to see George Mason University undergo the same training scenario. However, I was in for a real surprise. For the first time, I got to see five departments all work together: George Mason Campus Police, Fairfax City Police Department, Fairfax County Police Department, Fairfax County Sheriff and the Fire and Medical Departments.
Prior to the scenario, there was a three-hour briefing on the roles of the departments involved. It also provided a basic background in the lessons law enforcement learned in school shootings dating back to Columbine and how each shooting incorporated a new factor to be taken into consideration for future law enforcement operations in countering the mass shooters. This briefing also included the RTF (Rescue Task Force), the group in charge of rushing in ahead of EMS and identifying the victims who are in dire need of extraction.
These classroom lessons were used to great effect during the event. The “shooting” occurred in the Patriot Center arena, where a shooter armed with a Remington Model 870 shotgun and was able to wound 17 people. It was an awe inspiring sight to see SWAT members pursue the shooter and arrest him in a matter of minutes, as EMS, with police escort, tended to the wounded. The medics were as efficient as the SWAT team as they identified the wounded and tagged victims with specific color-coded bands: green for wounded but mobile; yellow meant wounded but not seriously; red indicated a seriously injury; and black meant the victim was deceased.
The EMS first ran in and banded the victims and the secondary medical team would move in and remove the red-banded victims first. Following the red victims, yellow victims were rescued and then the green-banded victims were escorted out. People who were not given bands were uninjured and taken directly to the rally point. The black bands were left behind since the deceased would be part of the crime scene. CSI (Crime Scene Investigation) units would arrive some time later to conduct their part of the investigation.
In conclusion, a venue like George Mason is a challenge for law enforcement to coordinate due to its location, overall size of the campus, and numerous agencies which have jurisdiction. However, with practice exercises such as this, allowing law enforcement and EMS to coordinate efforts and assign roles in advance of an emergency, should a mass tragedy occur at George Mason, everything possible would be done to keep it from reach the same level of horrific intensity that claimed so many innocent lives at Columbine, Virginia Tech and other places where evil intrudes on life and learning.
I’m glad to learn law enforcement is learning from these mass shootings and developing new tactics. I remember at Columbine (which was 14 years ago) police still seemed to be following the old procedure of…setting up a perimeter…. outside the building/ arena where the shooting was taking place so the bag guys wouldn’t be able to escape and for the protection of the officers. But meanwhile the shooting continued inside with victims being killed. I think a lot of these shooter nuts ‘hope’ that all poice will do is surround the building and let them continue with their ‘work’ inside, it’s what these guys want (ala ‘Dog Day Afternoon’, ‘Die Hard’ etc.).
Now as understand it besides setting up a perimeter, squads go right in followed by EMT’s to take down the shooters and save the victims. Which is great.