THE TRUTH ABOUT POLICE ACTIVE SHOOTER TRAINING

 

THE TRUTH ABOUT POLICE ACTIVE SHOOTER TRAINING

I attended active shooter training in the years immediately after Columbine. I’m not certain of the year but somewhere around 2001-2003. Thereafter I attended active shooter training almost annually. I was a police officer in an under-300 agency in the Southern California city of 200,000. I worked in law enforcement from Regan to Trump. 28 years, 2 months, 22 days.

Active shooter training was met with flat out resistance and open hostility.

The truth about police active shooter training is the fact its best students aren’t police officers. A police officer, where I worked, was trained to never enter a building alone to conduct a search. We lived and breathed contact and cover. We did not tolerate Tombstone courage.

Active shooter training consisted of entering the building, going to the sound of gunfire and killing the suspect. While that sounds simple, complicating the matter is the fact you don’t know if the suspect is male or female. Black, White, Asian, Hispanic all are unknown. Is the suspect an adult? Another student? What are they wearing? Where are they; the sound of gunfire echoes in large indoor structures.

Shooting the suspect on sight, without warning, is mandatory to defend other lives. They aren’t going to “drop the weapon” after going that far and waiting to find out if they would drop the weapon is somewhat suicidal. Consequently, killing the wrong person in training happens. An adult in civilian clothes (teacher) picks up the gun. Another student (victim) picks up the gun. Unfortunately, they look just like the suspect due to the lack of a suspect description.

I killed the suspect on several occasions. I killed innocent bystanders. Fired rounds in directions that were unsafe to anyone downrange, and I was killed repeatedly, quite often by the second or third suspect I didn’t know was there.

 

COPS ARE SCARED

Suicide missions are not a component of police work and have nothing to do with putting a “life on the line daily.” Called to and arriving at the scene of  bank robbery in progress is putting a life in peril. Stopping a car after a call of shots fired is putting your life on the line. Running into a building with a paucity of information, if any, is also putting your life on the line. Once a person takes an assessment of their circumstances and determines they are at a complete tactical disadvantage and the likelihood of the mission carries more risk of failure than success, which includes potentially collateral damage, it turns into a suicide mission if entry is attempted.

A barricaded suspect with hostages is not an active shooter because they are at a school. An active shooter situation can be turned into a barricaded suspect matter, but unless negotiations and other acts are underway to resolve the matter the incident is still an active shooter event, where the suspect is taking an extended break between movements.

 

 

 

 

 

COPS NEED TO DO THEIR JOB

As a police officer I never considered myself a second-class citizen. I never thought anyone was better or worse than me as a base human, just equal and different. I don’t think sacrificing my life is required for any cause. As a young man I enlisted in the United States Marine Corps and the day I graduated from boot camp I was ready to fight, and sacrifice my life…damned near, but still nowhere close…to the allegiance of suicide bombers. I mean, if the old man said storm the hill, storm the hill.

The preciousness, the impermanence of life takes on more meaning, especially when a person has used up more time than they have left. I only have one life. Once it’s gone, it’s over. I won’t have another one, just this one. Nothing is worth losing it.

The public has a perception that police officers are willing to sacrifice their life to save them. My life wasn’t for sale. You cannot compensate me for my life. That’s not sacrifice. It’s someone that thinks someone else should live so they allow their own death. That’s what parents do, sometimes. I was willing to take chances with my life to save you and I did that thousands of times. I never thought I was going to die while doing it…I just knew that might happen. But I wouldn’t do something for anyone that would probably kill me.

I’m not talking about something that probably wouldn’t work. That wasn’t a good idea. That was against everything I had been trained to do. That might kill the wrong person. That might get me hurt, or even that might get me killed. To be clear, “probably get killed”. That’s more than a feeling and it transcends fear because it requires an analysis and assessment of capabilities. “With what I have and what I know what will be the outcome?”