Quick overview of Active Shooter Response

Hey all, I hope everyone is doing well. I know it has been a heavy couple of days, if you need to talk to anyone, I am available via twitter and am here for you.

I feel there is a lot of confusion revolving around active shooter responses and I want to do a quick overview to hopefully clear some things up.

Columbine, Parkland, Aurora, all had one thing in common, slow response and failure to act in a timely manner. Most victims in these incidents could have been saved with a quick response and early trauma care. A standardized response to active shooter incidents was then developed and implemented across the country. Experience has shown that reliance on specialized tactical units to resolve such high-risk situations sometimes results in delayed action at a crisis site. That is, certain circumstances are so dynamic and dangerous that securing the scene and waiting for a tactical team can be counterproductive to the first responders’ primary lifesaving mission.

This is JUST going over the civilian side of the initial response. I will not be discussing clearing tactics because I am a fireman and not a cop.

Also, this will be a multi-agency response, so Contact Teams and Rescue Task Forces may be made up of responders from different agencies with different backgrounds and capabilities. We jokingly call this a Rainbow Task Force.

Definitions

Active Shooting: An incident in which one or more armed persons have used, or are reasonably likely to use, deadly force in an ongoing manner, and where persons have been injured, killed, or are under imminent threat of death or serious bodily harm by such persons.

Casualty Collection Point (CCP): A forward location where victims can be assembled for movement from areas of risk. Based upon incident dynamics, such as the number and location of victims, multiple CCPs may be required. CCP is dynamic and can be moved based on how the situation unfolds.

Cold Zone: A geographic area where first responders can operate with minimal threat to personal safety or health.

Contact Officer or Team: The first officer(s) at the scene of an active shooting tasked with locating the suspect(s) and stopping the threat.

Hot Zone: A geographic area, consisting of the immediate incident location, with a direct and immediate threat to personal safety or health. All violent incidents are considered hot until law enforcement determines otherwise. Only law enforcement should operate in the hot zone.

Warm Zone: The areas where law enforcement has either cleared or isolated the threat, and the risk is minimal or has been mitigated. Can be considered clear but NOT secure.

Immediate Action: Rapid response by one or more officers to an active shooting based on a reasonable belief that failure to swiftly seek out and address the threat would result in death or serious bodily injury.

Incident Commander (IC): The individual responsible for all incident activities, including the development of strategies and tactics and the ordering and release of resources. The IC has overall authority and responsibility for conducting incident operations and is responsible for the management of all operations at the incident site.

Inner Perimeter: An area established to keep the threat contained to a specified location.

Outer Perimeter: An area established to keep the inner perimeter secured and to prevent outside elements from entering the incident.

Rescue Task Force (RTF): A team consisting of fire/emergency medical services (EMS) personnel, paired with law enforcement officers. Fire/EMS personnel are tasked with initial treatment and triage of victims in the warm zone. Law enforcement officers are assigned as the protection for this team and should not separate from the fire/EMS personnel.

Staging Area: An area or location near the incident where outside resources respond and are quickly inventoried for utilization and assignment at the incident. There may be more than one staging area per incident.

Unified Command (UC): An incident command system used when there is more than one agency with incident jurisdiction, or when incidents cross political jurisdictions. Agencies work together through designated members of the UC.

Assess The Situation

Dispatched officers, or officers already at the incident may verify that an active shooter event exists, based on available information. This includes from persons confined within or exiting the current location, witnesses, reports or sound of gunfire, etc.

When available, or as time permits, witnesses should be asked about the location and number of suspects, weapons, description, location and number of persons in jeopardy.

The first arriving officer(s) will collect this information, advise communications, and request additional resources. The officer(s) will now determine to take immediate action alone or with another officer, or wait for more resources.

Officer Intervention

The Law Enforcement Policy Center states that an "individual officers decision to stop the threat is based off the officer's capability to effectively intervene, taking into consideration their training". I reject this notion. If you are a School Resource Officer or a first arriving officer on scene and you say to yourself "hm nope I am incapable of intervening based on my training", do us all a favor and turn in your badge.

That being said, whether on or off duty, in uniform or civilian clothes, an officer may determine that reasonable action is necessary and reasonable to stop the threat.

Contact Officer/Team Response

Locate and stop the threat. That is the mission of the contact officer or team.

Even if the threat has seemingly been terminated, they are required to clear each room and render the location safe. They will also assist in screening and orderly evacuation of persons do a designated area and locate anyone else still in hiding.

To avoid confusion, one contact team should be deployed at any given time. This way the officers can communicate which areas are clear and hopefully engage/push the threat to a location away from more victims. That being said, the IC may deploy additional officers to provide a tactical advantage. Communication is key here, each team must be aware of the other officers locations and actions.

The contact officer or team will attempt to locate the suspect in the most expeditious manner possible in order to stop the threat. In doing so, officers may not stop to render aid or assistance to victims, unless they require IMMEDIATE trauma care, but may, where reasonably possible, inform them that RTFs are on their way and direct them to a safe point of egress or hiding if they are ambulatory and it is deemed safe for them to do so.

The contact officer or team should not attempt to conduct a thorough clearing of the location, but should follow sounds, such as gunfire, yelling, or screaming; observations of victims and bystanders; and related information to find the suspect as soon as possible. Once the suspect has been located and the threat addressed, the contact officer or team should proceed to clear all portions of the location in the event that more suspects are in hiding.

Rescue Task Force

Once the contact officer or team is deployed, and as officers and resources arrive at the incident scene, a requisite number of RTFs should be formed to provide trauma care. Clearing a large building takes time, during which wounded persons may die due to hemorrhage. RTFs are intended to fill this gap in providing trauma care.

The Rescue Task Force is formed with law enforcement creating a protective 'diamond' around Fire/EMS personnel as their main job is to protect the team. RTFs are organized under a team leader, and are prepared to respond to hostile action as rapidly changing circumstances may place them in contact with suspects. In such instances, the RTF shall be prepared and equipped to serve as the contact team.

RTFs are deployed after the contact officer or team has made entry, provided updates, notified the command post of the location of the victims, established warm zones, and determined that rescue efforts may begin.

The wounded and injured need to be quickly treated for obvious life threatening injuries and removed to the designated CCPs with cover. My agency trains with 4 officers and 3-4 Fire/EMS personnel that make up the RTF. Each Fire/EMS person has a fanny pack with multiple decompression needles, tourniquets, occlusive dressings, bandages, nasopharyngeal airways, and two colors for triage. Black and red. Red = alive, Black = dead. Rescue and recovery operations will continue until the IC has declared the scene safe and clear.

Conclusion

Thats the brief overview. There are a few things I purposely left out because I'll end up going into way more detail necessary for a post like this. I hope this helps you understand the initial response to and active shooter incident and shows how dynamic and fluid the situation can be. All sworn personnel should be provided with training by their agency on immediate action for response to an active shooter incident.