Rethinking Active Shooter Response (couple of excerpts below)
https://www.policemag.com/340911/rethinking-active-shooter-response
When I first became a police officer, I viewed responding to an active shooter event, especially at a school, as the most stressful and significant thing that I would ever possibly experience. I spent hours researching the subject as a whole by researching previous events, both in the U.S. and abroad.
After I became an instructor for my department, I expanded my research by polling officers and agencies from across the country. I have also had the privilege of attending some great training offered by some very reputable trainers and training groups.
Based on my research and training, I am of the opinion that the standard “quad,” four-officer response is not only ineffective, but impractical. In fact, the only incident I know of where an attacker was stopped by a four-officer or more team response was the 2003 incident at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.
In all of the incidents I have researched, once the shooters were confronted by an armed response, no other innocents were killed. In each of these incidents, with the exception once again of the Case Western Reserve University shooting, the initial armed response met by the attacker consisted of one or two officers or civilians.
That’s why my agency started with a two-officer response when it created its active shooter response program. In addition, the training encourages any officer who is willing to go in solo to do so. The single-officer response that ended the 2009 Carthage, N.C., nursing home shooting and the reaction by a single, off-duty officer that helped stop the 2007 Salt Lake City Trolley Square Mall shooting are excellent examples of how one officer can make a very big difference.
The Cost of Waiting
One question that all officers have to answer for themselves is how long will they wait for backup before engaging an active shooter.
I believe the answer to this question is: However long it takes me to get my rifle and my go-bag out of my trunk.
During an active shooter incident, you are dealing with a very brutal equation: Time taken by first responders equals casualties. One of the largest body counts from an active shooting incident so far is the Virginia Tech University incident of 2007. Depending on which after-action report you read, the attacker shot an average of eight people and killed two every minute. We have to get in quickly and end the killing.
With all due deference to your greater experience and training, I believe that the most important decision that confronts the officers involved is when and whether to DISOBEY the wrong stand-down/wait order. Thank God that it was easier to be made (and was made) by officers of another command.
I believe the answer to this question is: However long it takes me to get my rifle and my go-bag out of my trunk.
Made me tear up.