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Editor's Notebook: Tactics Since Columbine
By Rich Grassi
April 20, 1999, a pair of high school students became mass murderers. Their names, already too well known, won't be repeated here. Their victims caused a rethinking of basic police tactics, those tactics learned hard from the massacre at Newhall CA and in a hundred other places since the dawn of policing in America.
What we'd learned, by the time I got on the job in the 1970s, was not to get in a hurry. Have good approach tactics. Create situational dominance. If a problem is localized, contain it. Establish perimeters. Communicate. Along comes 1999.
Columbine was localized. Establishing a perimeter and securing the scene allowed nothing but continued carnage. Well, after the fact, it was decided that the first cops arriving at a scene get together and go in. While that vastly oversimplifies Active Shooter Response, it gives you an idea. I argued against it with all the standard objections, favoring tactics we'd had for years. Since then, ASR has been used a number of times with good results.
In this edition, the day after the Columbine Anniversary, I'd caution a few things about Active Shooter Response - probably things that are already covered, but nevertheless important to reinforce along the way.
First, establish an entry point on the target structure and broadcast it. Anything entering the structure from another direction cannot by definition be us and is, therefore, a likely live-fire target. If a team's inside, stay away from entry and exits, preferably in a cover position. If someone approaches to go in, use verbal control tactics, but don't approach. If they go in, notify the team that a bogey went in and identify the entry point used.
Next, don't follow an entry team unless they know you are following. If they approve, you now have responsibility of the area in the rear: six o'clock. If you get tied up treating or evacuating casualties, let the team know their six is no longer covered.
Have gear ready for resupply; ammo, restraints, trauma gear, chem light sticks, water - anything they may need. Again, everything goes in through the point of entry. If we're opening another point of entry, we're going to need someone to control traffic to minimize blue-on-blue gunfire.
In advance of an event, understand this: if your agency SWAT trains 8 hours a month, chances are slim that the team or component(s) of the team will be first in on an active shooter incident. The more likely responder will be patrol people - possibly process, warrants, detectives and most likely, School Resource Officers. If SWAT gets 8 hours training per month in preparation, first responders should be training at least eight hours a month on Active Shooter Response.
This includes entries, searches, distance shooting, shooting on the move, immediate action drills for firearms and traumatic emergencies - etc.
It's not a cheap investment. An investment it is. Failure to prepare your people for more of these events could lead to the oft-threatened criminal and civil penalties - or more important, having to face the parents of those dead children.
