Detective provides insight on police training for active shooters

DOWNINGTOWN » Downingtown Detective Paul Trautmann tells police officers they have to mentally prepare themselves that today could be the day they respond to an active shooter threat.

As a Delaware County police officer, he responded to the Springfield Mall shooting in 1985 that killed three people and injured seven others.

“It’s something that stays with you forever,” Trautmann said. “It makes you more determined. It makes you passionate to do the right thing.”

He explained that such active shooter situations were previously handled differently.

“Back in the day, we got a call about someone with a gun, we responded and stopped it,” Trautmann said. “It was called police work.”

Several school shootings, such as Columbine in 1999, changed how police handled active shooter threats. Trautmann revised the lessons he learned from the program offered to law enforcement six years ago when asked by Chief Howard Holland, who was a lieutenant at the time. Holland explained that officers have to prepare themselves that an active shooter could be student, who may be a teenager.

Trautmann explained that police officers also have to change their mindsets that an active shooter incident could occur in their local area. He worked with officers from Caln and East Brandywine Police Departments because those officers would respond from the nearby agencies for assistance. He received feedback from the officers and updated the program.

The Police Chiefs Association and the Chester County District Attorney’s Office wanted the county program revamped, and James McGowan, who recently retired as the Downingtown police chief asked Trautmann to take the lead on the initiative. The county active shooter drills, developed by Trautmann, Caln Police Sgt. Kevin Bernard, West Chester Police Lt. James Morehead and West Goshen Police Lt. Michael Carroll, prepares police officers to go into a building where an active shooter is somewhere inside. He said everyday police officers should prepare themselves mentally because they need to be ready when it occurs.

“We need to develop the mindset of when this is going to happen, not if it’s going to happen. If you don’t believe it could happen, you’re essentially saying it could not happen and now you’re not prepared for it,” Trautmann said. “If you believe when, not if, you can prepare for something to occur.”

He compared it to preparing for inclement weather. A chance of rain may not be enough for someone to carry around an umbrella. But a weather report predicating rain convinces people to bring an umbrella and their raincoat.

Another change he made to the program is not waiting for SWAT to arrive, which could take 15 minutes for a full-time SWAT Team and 45 to 60 minutes for a part-time SWAT Team. He explained that police were trained to wait for a total of four officers to go in to a building to search for the threat so that they could watch in all directions for the rare possibility of more than one shooter. Trautmann doesn’t like the idea of waiting several minutes for other officers to arrive before making an entry and he said that a shooter could fire numerous shots in seconds. According to statistics, active shooter incidents are over within 10 to 15 min- utes of the incident.

Trautmann, with help from other instructors, taught police officers how to respond to active shooters and other threats, by going inside a building alone and as part of a team. The officers have trained in schools in Downingtown, Coatesville, Phoenixville and Kennett Square, which provides a realistic environment. Trautmann said police officers are taught tactics to minimize or mitigate the threat. They are also trained to lead and protect the medical personnel to provide medical attention to the wounded victims that are still inside the building. He explained that it is important to aid the victims as soon as possible and sometimes this occurs while other officers are ahead searching for the threat, or checking the building for a secondary threat.

He said 95 percent of incidents are stopped before it becomes active. For example, police will find a weapon in the targeted area or catch the suspect who made a threat against an individual or school.

“We want to stop it before it happens and we have to go in. Can we guarantee that it won’t ever happen? Absolutely not. But we can make sure we train to end it quickly,” Trautmann said. “The kids shouldn’t have to worry about it. They should only have to worry about their schoolwork and what they plan to do on the weekends.”

He said that having a partnership between the police department and the school district is crucial. Employees from both organizations communicate and he encourages staff members and students to alert police about anything suspicious.

“We’re fortunate in Downingtown that we have an administration that is big on that concept,” Trautmann said. “Everybody has to be involved for it to work.”

He would like to see shortterm goals for more schools to hire a police officer, school resource officer, or armed security officers. He said he would like to see federal grants offered to schools or police departments that could not afford it. A Downingtown Borough police officer serves as a school resource officer at Downingtown West High School and officers walk through the other 15 schools in the district each school day.

In the aftermath of the Parkland, Florida shooting in February that killed 17 people and injured 15 others, discussions of arming teachers have begun again. Trautmann is not in favor of arming teachers in the event that an armed teacher is mistakenly believed to be the active shooter.

“They are there to teach,” Trautmann said. “There’s too much of a probability that something could go wrong.”

He said having doors specific to security measures and a visitor sign-in with identification are mid-term goals. Downingtown has a system in place that runs a background check on visitors. In long-term goals he hopes there will be an increase of counselors and mental health experts available to help students, and to make them feel safe. He encourages having a relationship between the school district and police department for students to share information and work together. He also encourages people to be aware of their surroundings.

“There are evil people in this world,” Trautmann said. “You have to be prepared mentally and physically to deal with that.”

Visit Daily Local News staff writer Ginger Rae Dunbar’s blog about journalism and volunteering as a firefighter at FirefighterGinger.blogspot.com.