FDLE report reviews agency’s response to mass shooting at club
When Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents responded to Pulse nightclub, they didn’t know what to expect.
The agency normally handles officer-involved shootings, but its role quickly expanded to include helping the FBI with the investigation, identifying the victims and notifying families who lost a loved one.
That led to chaos and miscommunication at times, according to an internal after-action report on the agency’s response to the June 12, 2016, massacre that killed 49 people and injured at least 68 others.
The 35-page report was released Thursday to the Orlando Sentinel after a public-records request.
Overall, the report found the agency handled the shooting well, even though “no one could completely anticipate the resources Florida and FDLE would need to respond to the state’s first terrorist incident in history.”
But there were critiques and suggestions for changes the agency should make in the future.
The report stated that FDLE wasn’t prepared to notify families of a loss, which led to “chaos” because the agency had “no plan of action for the operational processes.”
It also detailed problems that led to a statewide intelligence agency not immediately sharing information about the shooting, which led to a significant delay in getting details to law enforcement.
Another after-action report requested by the Orlando Police Department is being conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice and is expected to look into how prepared local law-enforcement agencies were for a mass shooting, what strategies and tactics they used and how officers handled the aftermath.
Similar reports have been done after other tragedies, such as the December 2015 attack in San Bernardino, Calif., that left 14 people dead and 22 injured.
Pulse gunman Omar Mateen was killed in a shootout with Orlando Police officers three hours after he started the attack.
His widow, Noor Salman, was arrested in January and faces federal charges of aiding and abetting Mateen and lying to investigators after the shooting.
FDLE asked the 163 agents who responded to the shooting to fill out a survey about the shooting and communication within the department, the report states.
Communication internally and with state and local agencies was rated well overall, but communication with federal agencies appeared to be an issue.
Thirty-two percent of agents rated communication with federal organizations as poor or very poor, whereas 21 percent rated it fair and 44 percent found it to be good or very good, the report states.
The report noted this was due to “their interagency policies regarding security” and their “secret-level security clearances.” Other issues noted the FBI and FDLE tracking the same leads, which led to a duplication in efforts.
There were also problems with the Florida Fusion Center, a network of intelligence agencies around the state that aims to encourage the flow of information between various law enforcement agencies to protect citizens from crime and terrorism.
The report found the Fusion Center was directed by its command staff “not to disseminate information on the incident,” which created “a significant delay” with getting information to law-enforcement agencies.
When FDLE took over victim identification and family notification after the attack, it was a role agents rarely played in day-to-day operations. The report said FDLE agents “encountered chaos and no plan of action for the operational processes.”
The agency also learned the importance of having medics nearby when giving death notifications to family, noting “some family members became physically ill and/or lost consciousness after hearing the news of their loved ones,” the report states.
Agents also reported that in their haste to get to Pulse, many “were not prepared to operate long-term.”
The report recommended the agency should develop “go-bags” with laptops, office supplies and other items that could be used for immediate deployment.
FDLE has a mass notification system and radios, but neither was used during the Pulse response. The report noted the notification system should be used in the future and the radios weren’t because of user error, so more training was recommended.
The report also found that even though the agency offered counseling and hired four mentalheath providers to help agents, some didn’t seek assistance.
chayes@orlandosentinel. com, 407-420-5493 or Twitter: @journo_christal