TREXPO Panel: Active Shooter Response Spurs Lively Discussion

Audience participation leads to 35-minute extension of program.

by David Griffith

More than 60 officers attended today’s Active Shooter Panel discussion at TREXPO East in Chantilly, Va., participating in a lively discussion of how to
respond to lone gunmen, coordinated attacks, and even terrorist
incidents.

PoliceMag.com SWAT columnist and retired Cleveland SWAT sergeant
Robert O’Brien served as moderator for a panel that included Don Alwes
of the National Tactical Officer Association (NTOA), John Benner of
Tactical Defense Institute (TDI), Bob Gallegos retired from LAPD SWAT,
and Ron McCarthy of R.M. McCarthy and Associates and a founding member
of LAPD SWAT.

Topics covered by the panel included active shooter response by
patrol officers, the role of SWAT in active shooter incidents, and the
need for law enforcement administrators and executives to trust the
capabilities of their officers.

“Active shooters are a tactical-officer problem not a tactical-team problem,” O’Brien said opening the discussion.

After O’Brien’s introductory comments, each of the panelist
discussed his key concerns about active shooter response and answered
questions from the audience.

Benner addressed the need for citizens to take more responsibility
for their own security. “I think we need to be perfectly honest with
citizens,” he said. “We have a 20-minute to 30-minute response time.
It’s over by the time we get there.”

Alwes stressed the importance of one officer taking the initiative
and distracting an active shooter or even a terrorist team from its
main goal of killing as many people as possible. “One officer can make
a difference,” he said. “[Even if you are being attacked by a team of
terrorists], one person can keep them from fortifying or from
massacring people. Get into the fight and make them fight you.”

Gallegos also focused on the role of the individual first responder.
“You have to draw that line in the sand and take care of business,” he
said.

McCarthy said that his greatest concern was the way that agency
executives damage officer morale by expressing a lack of confidence in
the capabilities of their personnel. “You cannot expect officers to be
brave and do brave things if you haven’t given them the equipment and
training to do so,” McCarthy told the attendees.

Expanding on the need for first responders to be well equipped,
McCarthy said that if he was a police chief every patrol car in his
agency would have a soft ballistic shield. He also agreed with the
other panel members on the need for officers to have patrol rifles.

McCarthy argued that officers need to have 600 rounds of ammunition
in magazines in the trunks of their cars. “That’s a burdensome amount,
but it’s what you will need if you get into a sustained gunfight with
multiple suspects,” he explained. “If you don’t have the rounds to
protect yourself, you’re going to lose.”

One of the most lively discussions during the event centered around
fears of “blue on blue” friendly fire incidents. All of the panelists
agreed that officers need to have a way to identify themselves to other
responding officers should they have to take action against an active
shooter while off duty or in plain clothes.

During this discussion, audience member Mike Lessman of the Reno
Police Department showed his new invention, the DSM Safety Banner. The
DSM, “Don’t Shoot Me,” banner comes in a belt-ready pouch. The
reflective sash-style banner can be drawn with one hand during a
gunfight and has “Police” in white lettering on the front and back.
Lessman is showing the DSM banner in booth 902 at the show. It sells
for $30 and will be available at http://www.DSMsafety.com in two weeks.
Lessman said that he is only taking orders from law enforcement
agencies to ensure that the product is only available to officers.

The Active Shooter Panel event was only planned for two hours, but
the audience was so interested in the topic that it was extended 35
minutes.
Closing the session, Gallegos told the audience, “Train hard because the day will come.”

Alwes added a special message to the trainers in the audience. “You
have to teach people to shoot, move, and communicate so they can
respond to these incidents and prevail.”