Law enforcement trains for active shooter situations

With the prevalence of gun violence, including the school shootings in Kentucky and Florida earlier this month, the importance of school and community safety is paramount.

To discuss the issue and preparations for any incident, Starkville Police Department public information Officer Brandon Lovelady and Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District Police Chief Sammy Shumaker gave some insight into the training and protocols their departments go through for an active shooter incident.

While he wasn’t able to provide specific details to the de-

partment’s plans, Lovelady said SPD officers were required to learn the layout of all schools in case of such an incident. The SPD also works closely with other agencies on active shooter scenarios.

“It’s something that we train on,” Lovelady said. “We do have a plan in place. We consistently work with not only schools, but churches and factories in the area, things like that for plans, just so our staff is aware.”

Lovelady said the SPD has also done exercises building training scenarios using Simunition, a non-lethal training ammunition.

“It’s a way to do realistic, full-speed training, where you’re running scenarios, and they’re full simulations.” Lovelady said. “We’re not pretending to get into a certain altercation or anything like that. It’s weapons that look and feel like our duty weapons, but basically shoot paintballs.”

He also for the past three years, the department had used a program called Starkville Police Alert Readiness Cooperation (SPARC) to warn both public and private schools in the area of any imminent threat.

Lovelady urged the community to report anything suspicious to the SPD, and advised people to get as much space between themselves and the incident if they end up caught in a major emergency.

Shumaker said the district’s police and security officers also had protocols for an active shooter situation and ran regular drills.

“There are safety procedures for the school,” Shumaker said. “We train our faculty and staff on it each year before school starts. They also have manuals to go over with the procedures, just to keep fresh with it.”

Shumaker also said the community had a role in keeping schools safe.

“It’s something that we would like for people to work with us on, because safety is everybody’s business. It’s not

just the police. It’s not just the school, but this is everybody’s business. This applies to everybody, parents and students. We need everybody to do their part to help us maintain safety in and around our schools and in our community.”

Both Shumaker and Lovelady urged the community to trust the authorities in crises and to be careful about posting on social media.

“Too many times, people take to social media, and as we’ve seen in times past, that is incorrect information being put on social media, and the public will believe that more so than they believe the authorities,” Shumaker said.

Shumaker will also meet with various local law enforcement and other first responders on Thursday to discuss school security and other issues. He said the meeting had been planned since early in the school year.

“Should we have some type of major emergency, all of us are going to have to respond and work together,” Shumaker said.