Active Shooter Response

An officer recounts responding to the Route 91 Harvest Festival shooter – and shares why we must focus as much on emotional trauma as we do active shooter response tactics

Body camera footage shows dozens of officers and a SWAT team attempting to stop the shooter and rescue a wounded woman

Students and faculty at the flagship campus barricaded themselves in dorm rooms, offices and classrooms for hours until a lockdown was lifted

Once a firearm has been identified, alerts are dispatched, including the last known location of the shooter, to school staff and law enforcement

With hundreds, if not thousands, of calls coming in at once, a real-time crime center or emergency communications center could benefit from these two things

The small lighting system can be used to temporarily impair the vision of assailants, giving people time to negate threats and seek safety until law enforcement intervenes

How can we avoid the most common planning errors in anticipation of the unthinkable?

"In reality, in the 2020s, if we are not looking at the digital footprint of a student of concern, we are really not doing a comprehensive threat assessment."

To the officer who stopped the killing, we thank you for inspiring the entire law enforcement profession with your determined, courageous and effective response

If you are honest enough to admit you do not possess an open mind, then aggressively strive to develop one

Lt. Col. Sam Samaroo said Deputy Scot Peterson was taught that even if he was alone, he would need to confront the shooter without waiting for backup

Strategies should include reporting the signs, anonymous tip lines and behavioral threat assessments

There are many layers of complexity inherent in balancing transparency, public safety, and respect for the victims and their families

Officers inside the theater, where the graduation ceremony had been taking place, heard gunfire and radioed to police stationed outside, who found multiple victims

“A lot goes through your mind when you are driving to an in-progress active shooter at your own son’s school. I was thinking about my son and all my son’s friends. It’s hard to explain, but it was surreal.”