Page 22 - TPA Journal January - February 2019

DATE: December 25, 2018

TO: Lea Hilton, Emily Taylor,

FROM: Cris Andersen, Law Enforcement Division Development

SUBJECT: Special Report: 5 Things Every LEO Should Know About Responding to Active
Shooter/Mass Casualty Incidents

Brothers and sisters in law enforcement,

Another new year is upon us and by the time you read this article you will likely have made a
new-year’s resolution aimed at improving your lives and those you care for. I sincerely hope the
administrators at your agency commit the time, financial, and human resources needed to renew
enthusiasm for sound strategic and tactical response to active shooter/mass casualty incidents, as
these critical incidents will continue to evolve in 2019. Having spent most of my law enforcement
career in tactical special operations and emergency management I’ve seen the ebb and flow of
interest surrounding critical incident response since 9/11 and unfortunately, not nearly enough
time and effort is spent reinforcing readiness for the things we fear most; assaults on our families
by cowards with evil intent. There are new tactical response training courses available state wide
and I applaud the people teaching and attending them for their enthusiasm; however, I see a very
noticeable absence of training courses geared toward teaching emergency first responders the
importance of strategic management of critical incidents. This is the area of instruction we allowed
to diminish since 9/11 and is the focus of this month’s article on 5 Things Every LEO Should Know
About Responding to Active Shooters/Mass Casualty Incidents. Bear in mind these are but five of
the many important strategic challenges LEO face when responding to critical incidents, and
substantial time should be re-committed to the National Incident Command System and its three
primary elements – Incident Command Systems (ICS), Multi-agency Coordination (MAC), and Joint
Information Systems (JIS). The skills we learned post 9/11 are perishable and will not re-generate
absent a commitment to excellence in emergency management. Below are five areas I believe
need the most attention when addressing your agencies’ critical response strategies.

Threat Neutralization v Command and Control Strategies – When teaching classes on emergency
response and telling students the establishment of ICS protocols is as vital to a successful outcome
as is threat neutralization, I get a lot of quizzical looks. All of us applied for this occupation so we

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