Officers train for ‘active shooter’ situation
Twenty-seven officers from 10 local law enforcement agencies piled into McBrien Elementary School in East Ridge on Thursday to learn the best way to respond to an active shooter.
The off icers completed six training scenarios — some officers acted as suspects while others practiced responding, armed with nonlethal training ammunition.
The school, which was closed in 2010, is ideal for training because it is realistic and allows officers to move through the space, said Josh Creel, an East Ridge police detective and training instructor.
And while the training bullets won’t kill you, they hurt. A good bit.
“This is as real as it gets without shooting real guns,” Creel said. “You can’t get this [experience] by standing static in front of a video screen. It’s the difference between driving a race car simulator and actually taking a race car out on the track.”
All told, about 70 officers went through the two-day training course this week. The Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training is funded by the Department of Justice and has been used to train officers across the United States.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation oversees much of the training. Supervisory Special Agent Marshall Stone said that responding to an active shooter is much different than responding to a typical police call.
He said the goals of the training are to improve the initial tactical response and to ensure that different agencies respond in the same way.
“You want everyone to know how everyone else is going to react to that type of situation,” he said. “If something like this goes on, you might have a city officer respond, a county officer respond and an FBI agent. So the more people who get trained on this type of response, the better it is going to be and the more consistent it is going to be.”
Contact staff writer Shelly Bradbury at 423-757-6525 or sbradbury@timesfreepress.com with tips or story ideas.