In recent months, with active shooter events having occurred at a mall, a church and as children got off a school bus, there have been numerous postings in various online forums from civilians who hold concealed carry permits asking, “How should we react to this?” . . . → Read More: CCW & The Active Shooter
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While we stand shoulder to shoulder as First Responders, there is a fundamental difference between the way that police officers, paramedics and firefighters view 911 responses. . . . → Read More: Preparedness and/or Prevention A few years ago I sat and typed a blog about a conversation I’d had with my youngest son. As we mark ten years since the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001, it feels appropriate to repost it now. - – - - My wife had to work an evening shift the other day and, as always when that happens, I found myself enjoying father/son night with my ten-year-old. Now, since I’m about the proudest daddy you’ll ever find this is in no way a burden. On this particular evening we were scanning some music videos online and one that we came across was Daryl Worley’s “Have You Forgotten”. We watched it twice all the way through. When it was over my son and I had a conversation about certain parts of it and I was silently thankful for artists like Daryl Worley who DON’T let us forget. After my son and I had talked I felt compelled to sit down and get some of my thoughts typed out. Continue reading 9/11/01: Ten Years Later. Never Forget! More than 200 years ago President Thomas Jefferson had to deal with the “Barbary Pirates” – religious fanatics / criminals who were pirating ships off the coast of Tripoli. He had to dispatch Marines to go and deal with them. Today we see a surge in piracy off the coast of Somalia, but that’s far from the only type of terrorist activity we see. I don’t guess we’ll see hijacked planes again anytime soon, but bombings? Hostage situations? School attacks? Mall attacks? City Attacks? These are all either common or coming. Recently I had cause to visit our nation’s capital and attend a semi-formal function that was held in the Ronald Reagan building. Not realizing that it was a federally owned and operated building (okay, so it was a stupid moment) I put my usual unarmed “reduced” load into my pants and sport coat: wallet, keys, coin, lighter, small “gentleman’s” pocket knife, BLACKHAWK! BHB40 knife, SureFire 6P LED flashlight, Mil-Tac TDP pen and my cell phone. Because of the type of event that it was I also put a digial camera in my pocket. Note that I had only one fair size folding knife and no gun. In my mind I was already under-armed. When I arrived at the Reagan building, however, I found myself facing the metal detectors and my mind immediately jumped to the BHB40 knife in my pocket. I KNEW it wasn’t going through those detectors. Continue reading How Secure Is Our Security? The most negligent, unprofessional, obscene words anyone can ever say are: “It will never happen here.” – LtCol Dave Grossman Everything is a matter of perception. – Deputy Shawn Davenport It Will Never Happen Here, USA has been a few places, the names of which we should all recognize: Littleton Colorado; Austin Texas; Paducah Kentucky; Jonesboro Arkansas. Each has been the site of a school shooting incident we now identify as an “Active Shooter” scenario. Whether or not it happened there is a historical fact now, but I can’t help wondering: on the day before the school shootings, how many people thought, “It will never happen here.” Of those, how many were law enforcement professionals, elected public officials, other public service employees? None of them could have known. But rest assured, their perception the day after was a far cry different than it was the day before. Continue reading Beslan, USA Since 1999 and the occurrence of the shootings at Columbine High School police departments nationwide have been integrating Active Shooter – sometimes also called Immediate Response – training into their operations. This became mandatory because Columbine proved that law enforcement protocols as they existed then were unacceptable. Between 1966 when Charles Whitman went up into the Texas Tower and started sniping people on the street and 1999 when two students started shooting students inside Columbine High School the “average” law enforcement professional – when responding to a shooting, hostage or barricade situation – was expected to set up a perimeter and wait for those who were better equipped and better trained: SWAT. Once it was proven that society in general was not prepared for police officers or deputies to sit safely outside while children and teachers were hunted inside, Active Shooter training was born. Basic Tactics were developed in an effort to prepare Joe Patrol Officer for response to such situations. A couple of minor faults were identified in the training and many agencies have now evolved their training to address those shortcomings. Some of them are / were: Continue reading Evolving Immediate Response Training Just in the past few days I received an email – via one of the server lists I’m on – that made me think about all aspects of the current war on terror and how they could apply as much here in the United States as they do in the “war zone” of Iraq or Afghanistan. The email section that I quote is this: “Obtain a translated copy of the following: “How to fight alone,”and “New Methods in Today’s Battle,” by Muhammed Khalil al-Hakaima. He has outlined how to take this war to the cities. Note: He urges the study of the human anatomy in order to identify vulnerable areas and take up martial arts and exercise; utilize tactics such as stabbings, arson, car bombs and cutting the brake lines on automobiles; how to use narcotics such as cocaine and heroin as weapons and how to use easily available poisons as well. How to conduct intelligence/counterintelligence against the police and how to infiltrate local police departments. This war is evolving into 5GW. Make sure you are prepared.” Continue reading 5th Generation Warfare Last week’s article about the future of school safety and how our day to day perceptions have got to be changed if we’re to do things right has grown into this week’s article about the idea and reality of Counter-Terrorism Task Forces and how that concept has to be developed in an efficient NON-political manner. Now I know that’s next to impossible due to the fact that virtually all government funding is severely impacted by politics, but I hold on to the hope that where Counter-Terrorism is concerned – and the safety and security of virtually every citizen of the United States is concerned, most especially our children – that politicians will set aside traditional partisan politics and actually focus on getting the job done the right way. It can’t be done right the FIRST TIME because their are already existent Joint Terrorism Task Force teams. A Counter-Terrorism Task Force concept being developed now would have to be the next generation and serve as a model nationwide wherever it first gets “stood up”. Continue reading Counter-Terrorism Task Force Concept Done Right When I took my first Active Shooter Response Training it occurred to me that the tactics I learned were: Now I don’t consider either of those observations negative in nature, but both of them can be restrictive. When you develop your tactics around a four (or five) man diamond formation, the officers involved may not be operationally experienced enough to adapt the tactics to the circumstances that face them. Further, as important as policies and protocols are, they are both developed to manage the majority of scenarios – not 100% of them. So, there may come a time where the officers comprising the entry team may have to make and act on the decision to perform an action that is outside of policy. Continue reading Adapting AS/IR Tactics to Terrorist Team Attacks |
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