Enhanced Active Shooter Training
Taking it up a Notch

By MPO Nick Minzghor

Since the tragedy at Columbine in 1999 most departments have initiated some form of active shooter training.  We all learned from that horrible tragedy and a change had to be made in police tactics when responding to these dynamic situations.  Most departments in the country don’t have SWAT teams that are readily available and most can take up to an hour to arrive on a call.  This made it a necessity for departments to establish rapid response teams, active shooter teams from patrol to form a 4+ officer team and enter the building, move to the suspect(s) and take custody of them or neutralize the threat.  A majority of departments (including my own) put on 8 hour training for officers that includes moving in the diamond or the T, the importance of rapid response to minimize the casualties caused by the suspect(s), proper mental mindset, and basic small team room entry tactics.  Some departments do the training annually, but in a lot of cases the training was provided one time, many years ago.  The number of active shooter events has been steady and departments either don’t believe this will happen in their jurisdiction or don’t have the money, etc. to maintain recurring training.  Yet, there is an expectation that if an event occurs, our officers will arrive, form a 4+ man team go into the building and engage/encounter the suspect(s) to save lives.  Are they supposed to do that and be successful based on the one time 8 hour training that they received 5 years ago?  What is the likelihood for a successful outcome?
It is not my intention to teach tactics in this article, but to give trainers things to think about when putting on Active Shooter training for officers.  I’m fortunate enough to work for a contract city within a large sheriff’s office that supports the police department financially and is supportive of our training efforts in this regard.  We conduct 40 hours of annual Active Shooter training every summer and have at least two additional quarterly training days, just for Active Shooter.  Even if you don’t have that much training time, you can amp up your training regime.

Here are some items that too often get overlooked in most Active Shooter Training programs:

• Annual Training – Officers will have a much higher likelihood of success in this tragic mission should they have the opportunity to practice the techniques and tactics on a minimum of an annual basis.  It is unrealistic to expect them to remember what they were taught in an 8 hour training block 5 or more years ago.
• Work Together, Train Together, and Fight Together – Officers should be trained in small team tactics with the people that they would actually be responding to the call with.  In large departments, people are commonly sent to training based on the amount of overtime it will save to send them from different work sites.  In some cases the officers will never see each other again.  Their performance in training and on a mission would be much different if they train, work and fight with the people they work with every day.
• Exterior/Open Air Tactics – For whatever reason, this seems to be overlooked by the majority of departments.  We expect them to go into the building and be successful, but we don’t teach them what to do if while en-route from the assembly area to the building, either by foot or vehicle, they encounter a suspect.  If they aren’t taught tactics for this situation the likelihood of success diminishes.
• Breaching – Yes, breaching for patrol.  If the school or building is in lockdown and the one or two people who may have a key to the school aren’t available, how do you get in?  Do you have breaching tools?  Have they practiced with them?  Something as simple as a halligan tool can give the team many more options. You must have a plan ahead of time and have trained it.
• Scene Consolidation – Too often training scenarios end when the suspect has been either arrested or neutralized.  Now what?  We have another 40+ minutes until SWAT is on scene.  How do we manage the innocents?  How do we collapse on the subjects in the room for searching and still maintain our security? What are we going to do with the injured?  Do innocents have to be moved away from an IED?  Is there additional stimulus?  So much can be done with that valuable time until SWAT arrives.  Training scenarios should not be ended after the suspect is neutralized or taken into custody.  Encourage officers to work through the additional problems.  
• Medical Contingencies – Have officers been trained in applying basic aid to gunshot victims?  In many active shooter events, there were tremendous amounts of casualties.  If EMS doesn’t come into the building right away, something has to be done.  Are you going to establish a casualty collection point?  Do they have medical equipment with them for others?  Do they have medical equipment for themselves?
• Stress Inoculation – Just like with receiving a shot to avoid the flu, you can do the same with stress in training.  The training should be difficult and stressful.  This can be accomplished by adding additional role players, using fake blood on injuries, the use of Simunitions®, audible distractions etc.  Make officers get fake blood all over them when they are trying to apply medical.  It adds another level of stress to the training, if blood is squirting everywhere while they are trying to maintain security. Contact your local military recruiters for role players; in most cases it is exciting for their delayed entry recruits and a good source for a lot of role players. 
• Team Building – Make the officers work together as a team through tasks that cannot be accomplished by an individual.  Create team building exercises that force them to make decisions after they are physically tired as a team.
• Link Ups – Linking up with additional arriving units is another one of those things that just seems to be overlooked in Active Shooter training but can be key to the success of the mission.  Practice having additional groups of active shooter teams linking up with each other without going gun on gun and communicating with each other as to what they should do in furtherance of the mission.
• Equipment – Have officers train with the gear that they will use on an actual active shooter event.  If they will be entering with rifles then get, borrow, and beg for Simmuniton® rifles.  Officers should have laminated copies of floor plans of local schools with them.  Although most of these are getting put on computers nationwide, the active shooter team isn’t bringing a laptop into the school with them.  They should have load bearing vests at a minimum that can be thrown on over duty gear to carry additional ammo, medical equipment, etc.  Make them wear it throughout the duration of the training.
• Pool Resources – If you are not a large department with a lot of resources or cash, coordinate with other local jurisdictions and pool your equipment and training resources and train together. 
• Training Progression – Teach officers the tactics that your department chooses to use and have them practice them dry, then with Simmunitions®, then live fire.  Each progression should be practiced over and over before advancing to the next.  Live fire is important since many officers may have never experienced standing next to someone in the diamond formation when an AR15 is torched off.  Experience as much in training so it isn’t a surprise during the mission.
• Training – Seek out additional sources of training and see what other departments are doing.  Don’t settle for, “what we are doing is good enough”.  Always try to improve the quality of your training; your officers will thank you for it.
• Terror Based – Although there is training available in this arena, I have yet to see a department that has trained patrol officers on how to respond to a terror based Active Shooter event.  Serious consideration needs to be given to establishing training above and beyond the “typical” active shooter scenario.

Active shooter situations are not going to go away, and we, as law enforcement trainers, need to do a better job of preparing our first responders to these incidents.  Just like our first aid, hazmat and CPR classes, active shooter should become part of your department’s annual in-service training.  If you only get 8 hours of training then use it effectively.  Training scenarios can and should involve so much more than just hallway movement and basic room entries.  Push your officers to take the scenarios to the point that control is passed over to SWAT.  Law enforcement agencies nationwide are continuing to do active shooter training and we all know it needs to be done; now it is time to take it up a notch.

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