The Active Shooter: Planning & Emergency Response Strategies Illustrated

TITLE: Active Shooters, 382 pages

OVERVIEW & TOPICS

An "active shooter" is defined as an individual armed with a firearm who has been shooting citizens, and who continues to do so even in the presence of responding officers.

How you respond to an active shooter will be dictated by the specific circumstances of the encounter, bearing in mind there could be more than one shooter involved in the same situation. If you find yourself involved in an active shooter situation, try to remain calm and use these guidelines to help you plan a strategy for survival.

HAVE A PLAN!!

Unlike a barricaded suspect who tends to stay in a known and confined area, a active shooter is on the move, difficult to isolate, his precise location may be unknown, and there is immediate risk of death or serious injury to potential victims. Since the middle of the last century, their have been thousand’s of active shooter incidents in the United States and abroad. In the public school’s, their have been over one hundred student on student shootings. One of the earliest active shooter school incidents occurred at the University of Texas on August 1, 1966 when student Charles Whitman shot and killed fifteen, and wounded 31 from a school tower in the center of the campus.

1.Active shooter incidents are usually spontaneous.
2.Active shooter behavior is unpredictable; violence may be indiscriminate or specific.
3.Active shooters may be suicidal, deciding to die in the course of their actions either at the hand of others or by self-inflicted wound.
4.Incidents often occur in a target-rich environment.
5.Active shooters usually have some degree of familiarity with the building or location they choose to occupy.
6.Most active shooter incidents are over within 10 minutes.
7.Active shooters may employ some type of diversion.
8.Multiple weapons are often used.

ACTION: Respond to active shooter(s).

CONDITION: Given a classroom environment, suitable training area, student issue, standard law enforcement equipment, police emergency vehicle, appropriate safety equipment and role players

STANDARD: Responded to a simulated active shooter incident. Gathered three to four police officers formed either a triangle or diamond formation and proceeded directly to the location of the shooter(s). By-passed simulated injured personnel in order to find and eliminate the threat. Eliminated the threat(s) by using reasonable amount of force.