Editor’s Note: In PoliceOne “First Person” essays, our Members and Columnists candidly share their own unique view of the world. This is a platform from which individual officers can share their own personal insights on issues confronting cops today, as well as opinions, observations, and advice on living life behind the thin blue line. This week’s essay comes from PoliceOne Member Jim Davis, an Investigator with the University of Nebraska — Lincoln Police Department. Do you want to share your own perspective with other P1 Members? Send us an e-mail with your story.
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By Jim Davis
University of Nebraska — Lincoln PD
Twenty seven years ago I responded to a disturbance with an armed subject in a town of 1,300 people. Today we’d call that an “active shooter.”
We had a staff of three police officers. Your back-up was 30 miles away, unless one of the other local off duty officers was available – then your back-up was real close, say, about 10 minutes.
What’s my point? It is simply this: We knew what we had to work with and we made it work.
This philosophy holds ever so true today when we talk about the “active shooter response.”
I have been to schools teaching what to do in response to an active shooter and I have become an instructor sharing the same tactics and ideals as to the active shooter response, all of which was great training, but it still comes down to how well you are prepared for the environment you work in.
There is no mystery in these tough economic times why we don’t train as much as we would like to, but there are things we can do on a day to day basis to help us be prepared for when an active shooter situation takes place:
Get to Know the Area
Take time during your regular patrol and walk through buildings – if nothing else, tell everyone you want to meet as many people on your beat as you can and are willing to give the building a security check. Not only will this make your Sheriff or Chief happy, you will know the ground you will be covering before you are forced to get to know it under stress.
Train Your Mind
Arguably, the greatest weapon you possess is your mind. Train it! Think through scenarios. “If I get a call here, I will park at this location and approach from here”. If you are a supervisor, think of where you could place a command post, what streets need to be blocked off, who will the back-up be and from what direction do I have them come in from. Think about everything you need to do.
Alarm Calls and All In-Progress Calls
When the dust settles, meet with all involved officers and talk about how well the response was, what you could do different and what would or should have been different if shooting was taking place. INCLUDE YOUR DISPATCH. If you can’t include your dispatch right away, talk to them at the end of their shift; just make sure you communicate with them. This doesn’t mean you have to have coffee and donuts and meet for four hours, depending on the outcome of the call, it can be real quick and to the point, but let everyone talk. Some of the best “training” comes from an impromptu meeting in the parking lot of the police station.
Map It
Take turns giving the shift scenarios. Use the maps to plot where you would approach a certain building. Let the supervisor tell you where he/she would like to see the command post – the ideas you can share are endless. If you are the only one working, pull the maps out and go over different scenarios in your mind. You’ll be surprised how many more details you think of looking over a wider area.
These are just a few things we do to be prepared for: “It’s not if it’s going to happen, but when is it going to happen.”
Keep yourself safe and remember that it all comes down to this: You have to work with what you have, and make it work.
Jim Davis is an Investigator with the University of Nebraska – Lincoln Police Department. He is a veteran law enforcement officer with over 28 years of service with small to mid size police departments in Nebraska and has been training police officers for over ten years. Contact Jim at davis8@unl.edu.
