Imagine, if you can, being at Columbine High School or Sandy Hook Elementary School. Or being in The Pulse, the nightclub in Orlando, Florida, or being in Paris, France, on Bastille Day under a truck attack. What would you do? How would you react? Where would you go?
People often think of their response to situations such as these shortly after they occur, but then, those thoughts are dismissed. Until the next mass killing or act of terrorism.
Law Enforcement Officers (LEOs) imagine these kinds of situations as well. When they are driving down the street. When they stop to get gas. When they are picking up groceries. When they are at a sporting event or concert. When they are out to dinner with their family.
Part of a LEOs training is to learn the actions and reactions that occur in everyday situations, and also in many more desperate situations.
“We train in case, God forbid, something like that should happen,” explained Tim Gaul, active shooter instructor from the Worthington Police Department. “And we do it to put your mind in ‘that place’.” The officers can actually feel and sense the situation, and with practice and training, learn how best to respond. “We don’t set them up to fail,” Gaul added. “We’d rather have mistakes made here (in training) than out on the street.”
Officers train for many situations, and these trainings are repeated, to help develop automatic reactions and responses. Nobles County Sheriffs Department and Worthington Police Department officers and dispatchers were involved in an active shooter training exercise last week in Round Lake. Trainings were held on Tuesday and Wednesday, with many members of both departments taking part in one or both training sessions.
An active shooter situation was staged, using the Round Lake Community Center (former High School building), as the location. Local LEOs took part in isolated scenarios and group scenarios.
Several isolated scenarios were staged to begin the day on Wednesday, and Gaul pointed out the many, many safety precautions being taken. LEOs in the training had no live ammunition or firearms, and no other weapons of any kind. Weapons used in the training were blueguns, which do not allow the use of live ammunition. They hold cartridges with paint ball tips, which are fired at a rate of 375 feet per second. LEOs and those acting as gunmen (bad guys), hostages and victims were wearing protective clothing and helmets with eye protection, and all observers were all wearing helmets for protection and neon vests, to indicate their observation status.
