learn from the experts best practices - shotspotter · 6 locations of active shooter incidents 7...

How to Prepare for an Active Shooter Incident

Learn fromthe Experts Best Practices

Active Shooter Best Practices May 2015 2

Table of Contents

3 Overview

3 Advancing Active Shooter Response Times with New Tools and Technology

4 Know the Facts: Active Shooter Research & Data—FBI Report

4 What’s the Definition of an Active Shooter?

4 160 Domestic Active Shooter Events

6 Locations of Active Shooter Incidents

7 How to Warn Potential Victims and Responders

7 Automatic Response Technology

8 Embracing Technology

9 Preparing Schools for Safety—K12 Best Practices

9 Tips to Prepare for an Active Shooter Incident on Your Campus

10 Preparation Tips—Before an Incident = 85%

12 Preparation Tips—During an Incident = 10%

12 Preparation Tips—After an Incident = 5%

13 Examples of School Strategies

14 ACT AHEAD

14 Law Enforcement Tactics


The increase of active shooter incidents in this country has

prompted many communities to take a closer look at how we

can help to prevent gun violence and respond to these incidents

even faster. Law enforcement agencies play a large role in sup-

porting the response to traumatic incidents and have helped

bring aid to victims, and preventing active shooters from pro-

viding further harm. In addition to law enforcement, there are

a great number of community partners who all work together

to keep us safer and to respond immediately to gunfire crisis

situations.

Advancing Active Shooter Response Times with New Tools and Technology

It’s important as a law enforcement professional or community

member to be aware of some of the latest technology that can

help first responders get to the scene faster and save lives. At

the end of the day, our job is to save as many lives as possible in

the event of an active shooter incident. This eBook is designed

to teach you about practical tips, strategies and new tools

for keeping your own community safer. The information you

learn will be invaluable—and better equip you and your teams

to become prepared for the future. The experts in this eBook

have years of experience helping and protecting our commu-

nities and are actively using some of the most cutting edge

technologies available on the market today.

Please read these best practices and tips and get your teams

together. Talk about what makes sense for your own prepared-

ness plans. You can never begin planning too early for a poten-

tial Active Shooter event.

Overview

Unfortunate as it is, the increase in active shooter events in

our country has become an issue that needs to be addressed

at the community and law enforcement level. If we truly want

to advance response time to reduce the lethality of active

shooter events, I think we owe it to ourselves, our officers,

and the public to take a look back at past active shooter

events. We can learn alot from these past tragedies.”

– Federal Active Shooter Expert

‘‘

’’


What’s the Definition of an Active Shooter?

The agreed-upon definition used by many of the federal agen-

cies from the White House down is “an individual actively

engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a confined

and populated area.” The definition is plural because there

have been events with more than one attacker.

160 Domestic Active Shooter Events

Over a period from 2000-2013, the FBI/ALERRT Active Shooter

research project was conducted which looked at events from

2000-2013. In this research, the team identified 160 domestic

active shooter events which met the working definition.

Although every effort was made to identify events, some true

active shooter events, by definition, were not included and

mistakenly omitted.

Know the Facts: Active Shooter Research & Data—FBI Report*

*The research was conducted and led by Dr. Pete Blair, Director of Research for ALERRT at Texas State University, as well as Special Agent Katherine Schweit, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2014.

2014 FBI/ALERRT Active Shooter Research Domestic Active Shooter Events

120006200142002

1120034200482005

10200614200772008

192009262010102011212012172013


In the past 5 years, the number of attacks jumped to more than

16 per year. That is going from less than one attack every two

months to a little bit more than one attack every three weeks

on average. It is also a 300% increase. Unfortunately these

tragic attacks are not going away and in fact are only increasing

in frequency.

This is a graphic representation of the number of people shot

and killed in active shooter events broken down by year. The red

indicated number of people killed and the dark gray indicates

the number wounded. Just like the number of attacks, you can

see a clear increase in the number of people shot. This also

applies to the number of people killed in these events.

The individual attacks have not become more dangerous and

this is a good thing. The increases in the number of people

shot and killed instead seems to be driven by the increase in

the number of events. If more events are occurring, we will un-

doubtedly have more killed and wounded.

Know the Facts: Active Shooter Research & Data—FBI Report

2014 FBI/ALERRT Active Shooter Research People Killed and Wounded

9 0 92000 10 35 452000 10 20 302000 30 23 532000 15 5 202000 25 28 532000 23 24 472000 69 55 1242000 29 33 622000 65 80 1452000 37 50 872000 31 54 852000 97 133 2302000 45 42 872000

2007

20092010201120122013

200120022003200420052006

2008


Locations of Active Shooter Incidents

Many believe that schools and educational facilities are the most

frequently attacked locations. They are actually second behind

places of business which represent more than 46% of the

attack locations. This would include businesses open to the

public such as retail establishments (malls for example) as well

as office environments not open to the public. Other locations

would include places of worship and military installations such

as the attacks in 2009 and March of this year at Fort Hood,

Texas.

The October 2014 FBI/ALERRT Active Shooter research project

research determined the average law enforcement response

time is about 3 minutes. It is important to note this is from

time dispatched, not the actual time the attack begins. However,

three minutes is still a very fast response time.


4.093minutes

Location of Attacks46%Commerce24%Education8%Outdoors

22%Other


How to Warn Potential Victims and Responders

Technologies can help to better warn potential victims. If the

data tells us that more than half are over before law enforce-

ment arrives, what can we do to better prepare, educate and

warn potential victims so that they can help themselves during

that three minutes they are waiting on us to arrive? K-12 schools

have lockdowns. Some Universities and Colleges have Emer-

gency Notification Systems (ENS). Both of these still require

a person to actually make the announcement or send out the

message. Is there a way to automate notification?

Automatic Response Technology

These things are there, always silently working, and require no

action on our part to activate in the event of a fire. Just as

smoke alarms can warn potential victims of a nearby fire, there

is existing technology that can automatically warn potential

victims of nearby gunfire.

An example of Automated Response technology is ShotSpotter.

The ShotSpotter system works without victims and those in

harm’s way needing to take any action. Very much like a fire alarm,

the technology is always there, and always being monitored.

In less than a minute, notifications of gunfire can be sent to law

enforcement, fire, and EMS creating a much faster response.

The civilians at the “epicenter” of the crisis need to be focused

on their immediate survival by avoiding the threat, denying

access to their location or defending themselves while help is

automatically on the way.




Embracing Technology

To sum up, we need to remember our goal is to save as many

lives as possible in a tragic active shooter event. As profession-

als, we should strive to do everything we can to prepare our

communities long before an event occurs. With the advance-

ment of technologies we see every day, we should leverage and

embrace these advancements at every opportunity. Automatic

response technologies are helping us to respond faster and to

be better prepared.

SST’s ShotSpotter® SiteSecure™ gunshot detection, analysis and location

solution provides OUTDOOR and INDOOR protection for any building,

such as office buildings, malls, hospitals and hotels. An active shooter

incident typically starts outdoors but may move indoors.

In the event of an active shooter, SST’s 24x7 monitoring service ensures

that first responders are alerted in seconds, not minutes, to save lives.

Sensors triangulate the sound and allow SST to identify precise location

of the shooter.

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Outdoor Sensor Source of Gunshot(s) Indoor Sensor Source of Gunshot(s)


Tips to Prepare for an Active Shooter Incident on Your Campus

What’s the best way to get ready for a possible active shooter

incident on your campus? Prepare and plan for each phase of

an incident and involve all personnel, community and agency

partners in your district. Preparation and planning can save lives

and increase response for first responders.

The three Key Phases of a critical active shooter threat:

1. Before: 85% of the work you need to do to prepare for

an active shooter incident happens before it actually occurs

(Prevention and Mitigation, Preparedness/Protection),

2. During: 10% of the preparation is during the incident

(Response),

3. After: 5% after the incident has happened

(Recovery).

In addition, to successfully prepare for any active shooter threat,

human capital and technology must be integrated before, during

and after the incident.

Preparing Schools for Safety— K12 Best Practices

4.09After5%4.09Before

85% 4.09During10%

Now more than ever, first responders and school officials

must be ready for incidents that impact the learning environ-

ment and challenge the safety along with security of our

students and faculty. We must ready ourselves to manage

these incidents before, during, and after. This is why the

‘85-10-5 percent’ formula has efficacy in our school readi-

ness, response, and recovery efforts. Trust me, it will impact

your learning environment when it occurs, but you will lead

and manage the chaos using this formula.

– Ian A. Moffett, President-Elect, NASSLEO,

Miami-Dade Chief of Police

‘‘

’’


Preparation Tips—Before an Incident = 85%

1. Have a robust notification system in place to notify

parents, law enforcement, school personnel (example

BlackBoard Connect)

2. Awareness Campaign — Have an awareness campaign

in place (example: Anti-Bullying campaign, “See something,

say something” campaign) which encourages the public to

report what they see.

3. Have a robust Plan in Place — Have an Emergency

operations plan for your school, outlining what happens

before, during and after an active shooter incident. People

should be trained on this plan. This is very important !

4. Have a Good Response Team — Understand who

will respond during an incident in your area whether it’s a

local team responding to the school or a district-wide team.

5. Make Plans Available Online — Once your plans are

done, share them online. Tools like SharePoint allow you

to share your plans with local agencies and your first re-

sponders. Include in this plan would be details about your

school safety and crisis team. What is the plan once your

crisis team arrives on campus?

6. Crisis Kits — Have crisis kits available with items that

can be used on-site during an incident or can be used for

evacuation (vests, whistles, tape).

7. Mutual Aid — Have mutual aid with agencies in your area,

make sure they have documentation of the plan. Partner

with local agencies. Keep a mutual aid agreement on hand.

8. Formal Agreements — These agreements are with

your technology partners and districts, detailing out your

technology equipment. No cost things you can work out

in advance.

Preparing Schools for Safety—K12 Best Practices

4.09Before85%



9. Metal Detection — Random metal detection checks

can deter guns and weapons from coming on campus.

10. Canine Dogs — Very helpful for tracking if an explosive

device or a gun is on campus..

11. Technology Integration — Implement single plat-

form camera systems, remote viewing of cameras, drones,

gunshot detections systems like ShotSpotter alerts, visitor

access systems integration and centralized area to view

and control through a real time crime center or situation

room.

12. PIO/Social Media — Have public information available

on social media! Develop good relationships with your

media outlets and forger relationships with your Public

Information Officer (PIO).

13. Statewide Joint-information Center (JIC) — Utilize

state and regional resources to collaborate on the infor-

mation that should be pushed out to the media and

parents. Every time training is conducted, the JIC should

be utilized to relay information and build relationships.

14. Training — Very important ! Have safety drills to get your

teams trained ahead of time. Training exercises ensure

everyone can work together when every second counts.

Helps crisis teams to respond efficiently even from a

remote location.

15. Assessment — Constant evaluation assessments is

important to your district.

4.09Before85%



Preparation Tips—During an Incident = 10%

1. Implement Incident Command System — Imple-

ment the Unified Command System which involves police,

fire, emergency medical services, and school administra-

tion. Manage the chaos or it becomes unorganized chaos.

2. Implement your site specific plans or district

Emergency Operations Plan — Use your customized

Incident Command System that is either District supported,

school based, or a combination.

3. Implement Technology — Activate and utilize your

technology to manage the active shooter situation. Use of

technology reduces time and human capital wasted and

allows you to redirect resources to more critical areas.

Preparation Tips—After an Incident = 5%

1. After Action Review — Conduct a comprehensive re-

view of strengths and areas of improvement that were noted

during the incident.

2. Community Awareness Planning Meeting — After

an incident, it’s always good to meet with your community.

3. Mental Health Awareness Plan — Victims and wit-

nesses often need grieving and counseling, so it’s good to

have these plans in place.

4. Security — Have additional security measures in place

after the incident happens at your school.

4.09During10% 4.09After

5%


Ian A. Moffett

President-Elect, NASSLEO,

Miami-Dade Chief of Police

Examples of School Strategies

• Visitor screening/sign in procedures

• Photo identification

• Ingress and egress areas are locked properly

• Video Surveillance Systems

• Emergency notification system

• Safety drills

• Crisis Management Plan

• Consult and meet with law enforcement

and first responders/Safety Teams

• Security audits

• Training

About the Expert

Ian A. Moffett has been a member of the National Association

of School Safety and Law Enforcement Officials (NASSLEO)

since 2003, and is currently the President Elect for NASSLEO.

As the Chief of Police and District Security for the Miami-Dade

Schools Police Department, the fourth largest school district

in the nation, he leads 190 sworn police officers. As a Subject

Matter Expert for the United States Department of Education

on issues related to emergency management in schools, he

has trained and worked with multi-agencies regarding respond-

ing to critical incidents. He has given countless workshops

in the areas of youth violence, gang awareness, and school

safety, weapons of mass destruction, emergency manage-

ment and tactical training.



A Awareness— Active Shooter Events on the Rise Active Shooter events are increasing in frequency in the United States. Prior to 2009, the U.S. averaged approximately only 5 shoot-ings per year. Since 2009, there are approximately 16 per year. To properly prepare for these types of events, agencies need to understand that our own neighborhood cities and towns are quickly becom-ing unpredictable areas for active shooter events.

C Community Engagement— Teach Strategies Civilians must be provided strategies to help save their own lives in an active shooter event. More than half of the events are over before law enforcement ever arrives on the scene. ALERRT’s Avoid, Deny, Defend program or DHS’s Run, Hide, Fight are two established programs for civilian response strategies. For more information on these programs go to….(we can insert later)

T Teach Trauma Skills Everyone should learn basic trauma life-saving skills, especially hemorrhage con-trol techniques such as the proper use of tourniquets. Trauma bags, to include tourniquets, should be kept in schools and public build-ings near AED machines.

ACT AHEADLaw Enforcement Tactics

In any active shooter scenario, we should not

elevate our officer’s exposure to danger without

insisting that they be wearing the personal pro-

tection to meet the task. To protect our officers,

we need to enforce the right equipment—this

includes seat belts and body armor, but they don’t

work if they are not used. It also includes some

things that are often locked away. Get them into

the field as a matter of course. Along with seat

belts, it is similarly frustrating to learn that here in

the 21st century, with the advances in body armor

technology, such as lighter weight, greater flexi-

bility, and undergarment improvements, over one

third of the officers killed in the last decade were

not wearing a vest.

— Chief Ron Teachman,

South Bend, Indiana Police Department

‘‘

’’



A Agency Collaboration

Law enforcement, Fire and EMS providers must work together before an active shooter event to plan, train and exercise response protocols. These protocols should be documented and practiced with planned drills and scenarios so that your community is well-prepared for an active shooter scenar-io before it even happens.

H Help the Wounded As professionals, you want to strive to do everything humanly possible to prepare your community long before an event occurs. It’s im-portant that you act ahead and have a plan for how to respond to wounded victims immediately. Technologies can help to alert you to an active shooter scene, but be prepared to work with local hospitals and other agency team members to attend to your victims first and fore-most. Have a backup plan. Minutes count.

E Equipment— Get it Ahead of Time Between 2003 and 2012, 36% of the officers who were feloniously killed in the line of duty were not wearing body armor. Use bullet proof vests, wear your seatbelt and get the equip-ment you need and plan for potential active shooter scenarios. You can never be too prepared.

A Advocate Technology Law enforcement should embrace and advocate for technology that can decrease response time, in-crease real-time intelligence, and provide immediate emergency notifications to those in harm’s way. ShotSpotter gunfire de-tection technology and the SaferMobility smart phone technology are two exam-ples of the latest technology that can assist first respond-ers and potential victims.

D Don’t Forget: Officer Safety Comes First Protecting officers is first and foremost. Make sure your agency has a plan to protect your teams and to ensure safety in every active shooter scenario.


Chief Ron Teachman

South Bend, Indiana

About the Expert

Ron Teachman

Chief of Police, South Bend Police Department

Chief Ron Teachman’s law enforcement career spans more than

35 years beginning at the New Bedford Police Department in

1977 where he later was appointed to the position of Chief of

Police. During his time as chief in New Bedford, Chief Teach-

man was known for his ability to collaborate and build effective

partnerships with federal, state, and local law enforcement as

well as community organizations.

Ron was appointed as the Chief of Police in South Bend in

2013 where he continues to be a strong advocate for commu-

nity policing programs and building innovative public safety part-

nerships. Chief Teachman has a passion for technology and has

implemented a number of cutting edge platforms to address

violent crime.

Chief Teachman has served on the Massachusetts Governor’s

Anti-Crime Council’s Sub-Committee on Urban Violence and

also graduated from the FBI National Academy. He received a

J.D. in 1994 from the New England School of Law (magna cum

laude) and is a member of the Massachusetts State Bar.


@ShotSpotter

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ShotSpotter

Corporate Headquarters 7979 Gateway Blvd., Suite 210 Newark, California 94560

05/15+1.888.274.6877 +1.510.794.3144 [email protected] www.ShotSpotter.com

More Information about SST and ShotSpotter can be found at www.SST-Inc.com or www.ShotSpotter.com. You can also follow SST and ShotSpotter solutions on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and LinkedIn. The National Gunfire Index can be down-loaded at www.ShotSpotter.com/ngi.

© 2015 SST, Inc.TM All rights reserved. ShotSpotter® FlexSM, ShotSpotter® SiteSecureTM, ShotSpotter®, ShotSpotter® Gunshot Location SystemTM, SSTTM SecureCampus and the ShotSpotter logo are registered trademarks of SST, Inc.TM, SST and ShotSpotter technology are protected by one or more issued U.S. and foreign patents, with other domestic and foreign patents pending, as detailed at www.ShotSpotter.com/patents.

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https://www.youtube.com/user/shotspotter

https://www.facebook.com/SHOTSPOTTER

https://www.linkedin.com/company/shotspotter-inc.

http://www.shotspotter.com/ngi

www.ShotSpotter.com/patents

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