Officer Jose Medina makes some greats points. I would imagine that his biggest obstacle to making this happen is TIME and Money. These two monsters should never be a reason not to train. We have the answer. WIth SBTactical and irTactical training systems this training is possible. Officer Medina thank you for dedication to training…..we appreciate it. “Replicate, Don’t Simulate” www.sbtactical.com At the Columbine High massacre, officers arrived and, perhaps realizing the firepower being used was too much, called out the SWAT team. It took more than 40 minutes for actual teams to arrive on the scene. In the meantime, some victims bled out due to the lag in response. Suddenly, the tactics “had to change.” In today’s world, entire departments train in active shooter response operations. It has become simple common sense for departments to get their people trained in “advanced tactics” training for these types of response. The North Hollywood bank robbery and shootout in 1997 stemmed the call for agencies to bring in long weapons such as AR-15/M-4 style rifles to combat such serious situations. Yet in many departments around the country, much of the training was spent familiarizing the officers with how to use the rifles efficiently. We had lots of good range time, trigger work, and good solid fundamentals. So why aren’t these same officers trained in a basic SWAT component? SWAT is a life-saving resource. Therefore, the tactics used are more explosive in nature; appear to be more fearless in approach; and build confidence in every field officer. Let’s face it. The majority of SWAT teams in the nation are part-time teams. Very few full-time teams exist. On these teams, many of the SWAT officers are strategically placed on different patrol and support division shifts as part of their work assignments. On any given day, in a mid-level town, you can have 12 to 20 officers responding to a scene within minutes. Many of these street officers link up with the SWAT officer on duty to gain the next rapid response move. The SWAT officer often takes control, stacks his team, and makes entry. Here’s where the problem lies. We watch many operators in basic SWAT school. Some of the things we watch include movement with weapons, pivots, transitions to handgun and back to long weapon, backing out, and simulated entry work. These are the same skills street officers need to know. Before Columbine, if non-SWAT-trained officers arrived on scene, entered the building, and made their way deep into the school looking for the bad guy(s), would they suddenly leave the building if a SWAT team linked up with them or would the SWAT team want the extra personnel? My point? Basic SWAT gives just that—the basic tactics that too many veterans working today may look at as advanced. Shouldn’t every good basic cop have the ability to quickly stack, flow into a room, hold a position if a SWAT team leader stated, “you two post this hallway,” and back-clear or secondary search several rooms? Lets face it. Tactical superiority, if not performed on a regular basis, is a diminishing skill. The same thing goes for basic firearms training. I tell many students, “You clear rooms every day when you walk into shops and coffee houses or performing security checks of buildings. Do you take that eyeball view of the surroundings as the “norm”? If you’re like me, you take a quick moment to “scenario the environment” and plan a response. SWAT teams are a very advanced and elite group of individuals, especially when built around tough standards. Front-line response officers should not worry about the advanced tactics such as sniper work, camera poles, gas mask CQB situations, strategic hostage situations, and other extreme situations. SWAT rules of entry hasn’t become trade secrets, and it helps to have the extra operators I call “boots on the ground street warriors” rolling next to us when needed. Like us, they have limited fear, superior confidence and tactical unity with the common goal of saving and protecting life. That comes from knowing tactical basics. Officer Jose Medina is an active member of the Piscataway (N.J.) Police Department’s SWAT team. He is a professional trainer for Team APC training. Tags: Patrol Tactics, SWAT Tactics, SWAT Training

Over the past few weeks, there have been a number of high-profile, active shooter events which have occurred around the country.
Two horrific incidents, one in Aurora, Colorado and the other in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, have caused many in the security industry to
review their policies and training associated with the active shooter phenomenon. The MSA Research & Intelligence Analysis Group
has compiled this informational bulletin to assist security personnel to be better prepared to address the active shooter threat.
The Threat
Active shooters remain a viable threat for the simplicity of attack and
high impact, achieved in a relatively short amount of time. For
example, in just under 15 minutes, James Holmes killed 12 people
and left 58 others injured during his shooting spree at a movie
theater in Aurora, Colorado last month. By comparison, Sueng-Hui
Cho killed 33 people, including himself, and wounded 17 more in
less than 11 minutes during the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre. More
than half of active shooter incidents are terminated in 12 minutes,
which corresponds to the average initial police response time.
Within the last five years, there have been at least 14 prominent,
high-casualty producing active shooter incidents (listed on left). Most of these cases have occurred in
locations where the shooter has been undeterred and unobstructed from carrying out their attack.
The incident locations have often been described as “soft targets” with limited active security
measures or armed personnel to provide protection for members of the public. In most instances,
shooters have either taken their own lives, been shot by police, or surrendered when forced with a
confrontation by law enforcement. According to New York City Police Department (NYPD) statistics,
46% of active shooter incidents are ended by the application of force by police or security, 40% end in
the shooter’s suicide, 14% of the time the shooter surrenders or, in less than 1% of cases, the violence
ends with the attacker fleeing.
Due to the rapid and dynamic nature of active shooter attacks and their propensity to occur against
soft targets and unarmed persons, security personnel must be trained and prepared to address these
deadly attacks by recognizing characteristics associated with past attackers, maintaining a situational
awareness, and developing countermeasures.
Common Characteristics
Although the following factors alone do not indicate that an individual will commit a violent act, these
characteristics have been commonly associated with past perpetrators of active shooter incidents:
 Changes in health or hygiene
 Feels victimized, makes threats
 Fascination with weapons
 Exhibits paranoia
 Seems depressed
 Dependence on alcohol or drugs
 Is involved in a troubled, workrelated romantic situation
 Suffers dramatic personality
swings / depression
 Evidence of psychosis
 Male < 45
 Loner, usually quiet, with defiant
outbursts, emotionally unstable
 History of violence
 Elevated frustration level
 Erratic behavior
 Pathological blamer or complainer
 Strained work relationships
 Reduced productivity
 Extremist views
 Threatening behavior
Situational Awareness
It is not always possible to recognize the aforementioned characteristics when you are either unfamiliar with the normal behavior
associated with the subject or the normal tempo of the location you are staffing. No matter where you are or who you deal with,
you should always have the presence of mind to identify potentially hostile situations. Maintain your situational awareness by:
 Remaining alert
 Having a rudimentary mental plan in the event of an
emergency situation
 Focusing your attention on your environment
 Looking out for odd or threatening behavior
 Knowing the location of other security personnel
 Identifying nearest exits
 Locating stairwells
 Taking note of unattended packages
 Noting the locations of alarm pull stations
Countermeasures/Mitigation
The necessity for countermeasures and mitigation are crucial to the prevention of this seemingly increasing act of extreme violence.
A clear example can be observed by looking at the recent thwarted active shooter attack attempt on August 15 at the Family
Research Council in Washington, DC. A lone gunman attempted to enter the facility with a handgun and approximately 50 rounds of
ammunition. Due to the facility’s effective policies for visitors and its well-trained, knowledgeable, and capable security staff which
properly enforced such policies, a catastrophe was averted. The time is now to review your existing plans. It is not sufficient to say
the plan is good enough and it probably won’t happen here. You must be proactive in your approach:
 Adopt a written zero tolerance policy for threats and violence.
 Update and review emergency response plans to include an active shooter component.
o A security force should be able to provide a tactical response capability to bridge the gap between the incident
initiation and law enforcement response.
o Have a plan, train your employees and exercise your plan to identify shortcomings.
 Train staff to include security (armed and unarmed), supervisors, management, and administrative personnel on the active
shooter threat.
o Conduct training at your facility on conflict resolution, recognizing threats, past incidents, and company policies.
o Train employees on what to do if in active shooter incident occurs.
 Include an intelligence component to your security program.
o Security teams should be briefed on real-time threat information, including evolving threats, tactics and trend analysis.
 Review and institute administrative controls with elements including:
o Employee confidential information hotline
o Employee assistance program-counseling
referral
o Pre-employment screening
o Employee termination policy
o Crisis management team
o Internal and external communication plans
 Modernize existing engineering controls.
o Have a professional facility security risk survey performed, including a review and update of facility screening
procedures and visitor management systems.
o Institute active security measures to supplement security personnel (i.e. access control systems, turnstiles).
o Update surveillance capabilities with personnel and/or cameras.
 Coordinate with local authorities to allow them to familiarize themselves with your facility.
o Allow authorities to train at your facility.
o Provide a copy of your plan to the authorities for their review.

“your plan briefs well”…….lets see how it executes with SBTatcial “Replicate, Don’t Simulate” September 2012 – “Show me your hands” yells Officer Dawson of the University of California Santa Barbara Police Department as he moves forward aiming his irM4 towards the suspected shooter. “Get on the ground!” he further demands as he takes charge of the scene and his partner, Officer Stern, moves innocent bystanders to safety. For the past seven minutes, chaos has taken over the Santa Catalina campus. With hearts pounding, gun shots ring out and the screams of students fill the dorm plaza. “End of scenario! – Good job everyone,” states Sgt Rob Romero, the senior trainer and lead detective. He stops the training and directs the role playing gunman and students to get ready for the next training scenario. Officer Dawson and Stern gather their team of officers to discuss the training scenario and watch the highlights of training that have been captured on the iCombat software. Over a six day training period, 63 police officers from 4 local and state police agencies were able train for an active shooter on a college campus. This was all possible due to a dedicated police training team that partnered with SBTactical. SBT is a local company that specializes in tactical training management and irTactical products. The “train anywhere and anytime” capabilities of the irSystem have allowed officers to train exactly where they may encounter such threats while maximizing training time and minimizing training costs. UCSB PD training instructor Officer Gregg Pierce, who is also a U.S. Army and Operation Iraqi Freedom combat veteran, described the irSytem as the “best training tool that I have ever utilized.” He also stated that he foresees a long lasting relationship with SBTactical. The University of California Santa Barbara students, staff, and faculty have a lot to be proud of when it comes to their police department. Their dedication to training is unparalleled in the law enforcement community. The irM4, irVest, and StresssX belt are all recording officer actions during the training exercise. Hits, shots fired, accuracy, and heart rate are collected by the iCombat software for further review and tracking. The future of law enforcement training is here! To learn more about SBTactical visit sbtactical.com.

Here is a link to a Homeland Security online course that addresses Active Shooters. Homeland Security
IS-907 Active Shooter: What you can do http://emilms.fema.gov/IS907/index.htm Course Overview
This course provides guidance to individuals, including managers and employees, so that they can prepare to respond to an active shooter situation. By the end of this course, you will be able to: Describe actions to take when confronted with an active shooter and responding law enforcement officials.
Recognize potential workplace violence indicators.
Describe actions to take to prevent and prepare for potential active shooter incidents.
Describe how to manage the consequences of an active shooter incident.
Not all recommendations provided here will be applicable at every facility. This course is intended to provide guidance to enhance facility-specific plans and procedures.

Realistic training is the key….When you are required to perform, you most likely will not rise to the occasion – you will fall to your level of training. Replicate, Don’t Simulate” Universal Electronics Inc.’s irTactical division will host an active shooter training program using its laser-based training system at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater from June 8-10. Dozens of tactical teams, SWAT personnel, law enforcement officers, ROTC cadets, federal agencies, and EMTs at the campus. The scenarios will include hostage rescue, school bus clearing, casualty treatment, evacuation under fire, and other realistic scenarios. Students will participate as hostages and bystanders while EMTs evaluate and treat simulated casualties as the SWAT teams cover them. The scenarios will take place in the corridors and rooms of the recently built Hyland Hall and other campus locations. There will also be classes and interactive discussions taking place throughout the weekend. State-of-the-art law enforcement products from several high-tech companies will be used to accomplish individual scenarios and help provide the full training experience. “This setting and these conditions will demonstrate that it is safer, easier, faster, and cheaper to train with the irTactical training system,” said Rick Jensen, president of irTactical, in a press release. “Police and Military from coast to coast have tested and evaluated the system and their acceptance is overwhelming.” The irTactical system is a projectile-less system that uses an infrared laser to mark hits on a vest that then causes a stressing electrical discharge, simulating a bullet strike. The officers and the “bad guys” will be armed with irM4s and semi-automatic irPistols for the event. The training data will be transmitted, recorded, and controlled from a Command Center Module that collects the data from up to 100 tactical officers as far as a mile away. The system collects data about accuracy, fire discipline, shot accountability, timing, and consistency for the after-action report. Tags: Active Shooters, Campus Safety, irTactical, Reality-Based Training