Friday, December 26, 2014

The FBI Trains 30,000 to Confront Active Shooters

The FBI is in the midst of a vast training program aimed at preparing 30,000 officers across the country to confront active shooters in schools, businesses and public places.
FBI Deputy Director Mark Giuliano told USA TODAY that the effort, born in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., school massacre in 2012, is the largest of its kind; more than 200 agents are committed to help complete the task. The bulk of the work is to be done next year.
Active Shooter Training (credit: CBS)
"We have found a block of training that, in a short period of time, provides the best investment in saving lives,'' Giuliano said, and it fills the void in how to respond to such events.
The deputy director said the program — a partnership with Texas State University — builds on grim lessons learned from scores of shootings, including the Newtown tragedy. The most effective means of limiting casualties is shaving seconds from the time it takes to locate and "eliminate'' suspects.
"If we don't get the initial response right, it's always going to be a train wreck,'' said Terry Nichols, assistant director of Texas State's Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Center. "You have to stop the threat. That means urging first responding officers to move quickly toward the gunfire. That's hard to do, even if you are a law enforcement officer.'
Within the next year, a similar FBI program is likely to be rolled out for operators of large sports stadiums across the country. Authorities have long feared that such venues could be so-called soft targets for attacks.
"They have asked us for our assistance,'' Giuliano said, declining to identify the stadium operators or their league affiliations.
The mass training efforts come in the wake of a steadily mounting number of active shooter incidents that have played out in virtually every corner of American life, from schools and workplaces to churches and shopping malls.
Police officers participate in an active shooter drill move down a 
hallway in a college classroom building in Salisbury, Md
In a 14-year review of such incidents released this year, the FBI found that the number of incidents increased from an average of 6.4 per year during the first half of the study to 16.4 per year during the second half of the examination. The FBI reviewed incidents that occurred from 2000 to 2013.
Of the 160 incidents identified, 64 (40%) were categorized as resulting in mass killings, incidents in which three or more people were killed. Thirty-nine of the mass killing incidents occurred during the second half of the 14-year period studied.
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