By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
St. Joseph police officers train regularly to respond to an active shooter, whether at a business, government building, or school.
Police Chief Chris Connally says the department will set up a vacant building to train officers to respond to an “active shooter” call.
“So, some of those scenarios we have them see different things and we put them in situations where they have to make a quick decision, but they have to make the right decision,” Connally tells host Barry Birr on the KFEQ Hotline.
The police chief is quick to add making the right decision quickly isn’t always easy.
“The person who rapidly pulls out their cellphone is different from the person that is the suspect that they’re trying to track down,” Connally says. “We put a lot of different things into those scenarios so that officers can see firsthand and make good decisions.”
Connally says the St. Joseph School District trains at the building level on how best to respond should the unthinkable actually happen.
Police must think the unthinkable, especially in light of school shootings, dating back to April of 1999 when Dylan Klebold and Eris Harris entered the Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado with the intent to kill. The two shot and killed 13 and wounded 20 before turning their guns on themselves.
Then, Sandy hook in Newtown, Connecticut and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Now, a shooter enters Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, killing 19 school children and two teachers.
Connally says these tragic experiences have had a very real impact on how officers are trained to respond to an “active shooter” call, no longer securing the area and waiting for SWAT.
“At first, they taught the ideal and then realized that hey, you know, as incidents occurred trainers observed that there wasn’t always time or there wasn’t always four (officers),” Connally says. “We didn’t want people waiting. If you hear the shots being fired, then go, go, go, go.”
Police Chief Chris Connally says much is learned by police during a debriefing after such tragedies, adding training and public policy need to be based on the facts gathered from such incidents.
“I read some good information on, actually policy information from studies that have been done through different institutes funded by the government, on what gun control policies work, what ones really don’t have an impact. And it’s funny because most of what you hear is political response, not evidence-based response.”