Page 7 - TPA Journal November December 2023

The breaching tools must be compact and easy to use by any field officer. These tools might
include pry bars (used by many fire departments), or pneumatic door jamb spreaders. The important point
is the tool must be quick and easy for anyone to use, and some type of carrying backpack must be pro-
vided so the responding officers have the tool, but also have both hands free to handle firearms or other
needs. SWAT typically has these tools, plus explosive entry methods. The problem has always been that
SWAT is delayed in arriving at a scene, relative to the speed of first responder patrol officers. SWAT
should be called, but first responders need the mechanical breaching tools as part of their everyday equip-
ment.

Schools can also help aid the rapid law enforcement response to an active shooter incident. Law
enforcement first responders need access to each locked door in a school. Schools may consider several
options. One would be to store labeled keys to all doors off campus but close by so that the keys would
be available to first responders when needed in an emergency. Schools might consider whether each door
in a school needs a unique key, or if most doors could be secured with the same key. Since lost or mis-
placed keys present a security issue, upgrading door security systems to electronic locks operated by card
readers or fobs is an option. Biometric systems would offer greater options, enabling individualized
access to specific rooms, while enrolling law enforcement first responders access to everything.

First responders and schools have done a good job in numbering exterior doors to better commu-
nicate points of entry for first responders, saving critical response time. The typical protocol is to num-
ber the main entrance door 1, and go around the building clockwise numbering each entrance door in
sequence. The interior side of these doors must also be labeled, allowing victims to clearly tell 911 oper-
ators where they are, or where the suspect is and the fastest route to them by first responders.

With relatively small schools, this numbering scheme may be adequate. However, larger schools
may have 35 or more numbered exterior entrances. Most patrol officers would have a difficult time know-
ing exactly where door 10 or 15 was on the building. Responders unfamiliar with the school would most
likely park at the main entrance and work their way around the building until the correct door was found.
This would delay their response time in actually confronting the suspect or bringing first aid to victims.

Perhaps a better way to number exterior doors would be to use a compass heading along with a
sequential numbering system. For example, each side the school would be represented by its compass
orientation, north, east, west, or south. On the north side of the building, the door on the left of one fac-
ing that side of the school would be door North 1, and then moving left to right, each door on that side
would have a sequential number, e.g., N1, N2, etc. The east and other sides would receive similar desig-
nations, numbering left to right: E1, E2, W1, etc.

Such a numbering system would allow all first responders, even those unfamiliar with a particu-
lar school, or even where the main entrance is located, to plan their arrival on the side of the school which
offers the most direct and time-saving approach.

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