Members of the Pearland Police and Fire Departments came together for a week of Active Shooter Event (ASE) training July 27 – 31. They had classroom and computer simulation instruction Monday – Thursday and then did real scenarios with Pearland Citizen Police Academy Alumni Association (PCPAAA) volunteers as “victims” at Rogers Middle School on Friday.
ASEs are situations like Columbine and the recent movie theater shootings in Lafayette, LA in which one or more people armed with weapons threaten and/or kill innocent victims, usually in highly populated areas.
The training was provided at no cost to the City by The Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT) Center at Texas State University (ALERRT), which is 100% grant funded.
The course, called Active Threat Integrated Response Course (ATIRC), brings together first responders to learn to quickly enter into harm’s way to neutralize a shooter and get the wounded out to higher levels of care.
In many circumstances, formally trained medical personnel will not or cannot be on the scene immediately to provide medical care. This course teaches police officers “battlefield medicine” and teaches EMS techs advanced life-saving techniques. Furthermore, it teaches all personnel to work together and build trust amongst themselves to save the maximum amount of lives possible.
According to the website, “The ALERRT curriculum, developed after the tragedy at Columbine High School, has become the national standard in active shooter response training. The first responders to the Fort Hood shootings on November 5, 2009 had been trained by ALERRT, and credited their swift and effective response on that day to the ALERRT training they had received.
“From the 1966 Tower shooting at the University of Texas, to the coordinated terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India in 2008, to the Fort Hood shooting in 2009 and beyond, the best lesson learned is to ‘be prepared.’ “
Retired San Marcos Police Officer and Curriculum Development Director Terry Nichols was on site, along with other ALERRT instructors, to monitor the scenarios, making notes for future adjustments.
Nichols is also one of ALERRT’s founders, as Texas State University has partnered with the San Marcos Police Department and the Hays County Sheriff’s Office. He has changed and improved the curriculum over the years to provide the fine programs that ALERRT offers today.
The ALERRT curriculum has been adopted by numerous states, including Mississippi, Alabama, Oklahoma, Texas, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Georgia, and Virginia, and agencies as their standard active shooter training. In addition, the New York City Police Department, Miami Police Department, Dallas Police Department, Houston Police Department, San Antonio Police Department, Memphis Police Department, and the Atlanta Police Department are among the major cities across the nation, who have adopted the ALERRT curriculum as their standard.
In addition to developing and delivering training courses to better prepare this country’s first-responders to effectively respond to acts of violence against its citizens, ALERRT also works with the Bureau of Justice Assistance on initiatives such as Preventing Violence Against Law Enforcement Officer Resilience and Survivability Initiative (VALOR) to stem violence directed against the officers themselves in these turbulent times.
“It’s wonderful to see the Pearland Emergency Responder Communities all come together to train,” said Nichols. “It speaks volumes about what they’re trying to achieve organizationally as a City to prepare for one of these catastrophic events.”
The training was coordinated on the City side by Pearland Police Department Lt. Kevin Nichols (no relation to Terry), who is also an ALERRT adjunct instructor.
“Integration between Fire and Police Departments in a critical incident is essential for a successful outcome,” said Lt. Nichols. “This type of innovative training will help prepare the first responders of this city to overcome the challenges that such integration presents. It was also a great opportunity to build rapport and camaraderie between the two agencies.”
“Honestly, this was the best training I’ve ever had,” said Robert Saldaña with Pearland Fire. “There was lots of hands-on material, which is always more effective.
The scenarios run at Rogers were varied, but basically all involved a “bad guy” or two entering the school and starting to shoot. Blanks were used in the suspects’ guns, but the noise was very similar to a real weapon being fired.
The instructors coordinated together with supervisors in both departments, who were using radios tuned to special channels that allowed them to communicate without disrupting any city broadcasts.
Units were called in after the initial shots were fired, and both police and fire/EMS personnel raced to the scene. Coordination was essential as they tried to stop the “bad guy,” tend to the wounded so they could be transported to higher levels of care and remove the deceased, all without getting injured or killed themselves.
The ALERRT instructors came armed with realistic props for the volunteers to simulate anything from a scratch to severed limbs to disembowelment. They even provided a “practice throat” so that EMS personnel could practice performing emergency tracheotomies.
“This training will be really valuable for our first responders, should an active shooter event ever happen in the Pearland area,” said volunteer Cindi Sabzevari. “I was happy to help in the field training, and feel our first responders did an amazing job during the scenarios that played out. I would like to give a special thanks to the trainers from ALERRT that travel around the country providing excellent training for the men and women that respond to these unfortunate incidents.”
“It was awesome,” said volunteer Larry Berkowitz. “It was so realistic, it was like everything was actually happening right there.”
ALERRT is on the brink of becoming Homeland Security certified, and is at the top of a small offering of classes like this available throughout the country. Agencies may request several levels of free training to come to their city or attend classes at the ALERRT Center in San Marcos.
The 2015 ALERRT Active Shooter Conference will be held November 1 – 4 at the Embassy Suites Hotel and Convention Center in San Marcos. It is the only national conference bridging the law enforcement, fire and EMS responses to active shooter events.
To learn more about ALERRT, classes they offer or to get more information about the conference, visit www.ALERRT.org.
The Pearland Police Officers Association is collecting donations of operable used digital point and shoot cameras and memory cards to assist the Rustic Oak Elementary School art department in instituting a student photography program.
Image may be NSFW.
