Local congregations learn ways to respond to active shooter situations

 

August 29, 2018

Women in an ALICE training class "pile on" Blaine County Deputy Chris Adair during an active shooter response program the sheriff's department put on for local congregations. The ALICE program teaches responses to active shooter situations based on probabilities of what typically happens during a shooting incident.

Ten members and two pastors from three churches in Chinook learned some basic ways to deal with an active shooter situation. The short course was taught by Blaine County Undersheriff Frank Billmayer and Sheriff's Deputy Chris Adair. Billmayer and Adair have taught a similar program to several schools, local government agencies and businesses in the county. ALICE instructor training was first offered locally in the spring of 2017. Billmayer said, "We've done parts of the ALICE training about eight or nine times in the county, this is the first time specifically for churches."

ALICE training developed as threats

to schools changed

The April, 1999 shooting at Columbine High School shocked the nation into the realization that threats by shooters to schools had changed. In the late 1990's Greg Crane was a law enforcement officer in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. His wife, Lisa, was an elementary school principal. After Columbine they began to question the current conventional wisdom about how to respond to a shooter, which according to Lisa was, "...teachers get everyone in a room, lock the door, turn off the lights, sit in the corner and wait for the police to arrive.

Undersheriff Billmayer said, "The protocols for responding to threats in schools, in the 1990's, were developed to deal with drive by shootings. The static response of staying low and staying in a protected place worked at the time. The Columbine situation introduced the totally new problem of a shooter actually entering a school." Those changes motivated the ALICE founders to develop an instructional program "to prepare our civilian population to help themselves until public safety officers arrive."

ALICE training teaches options-based protocols: (ALICE) Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate. In his introductory remarks to the local church members he said, "There are no fighting skills taught in the program. We'll teach ways to interrupt a shooter's thought pattern, then how to take advantage and exploit the interruption." ALICE training uses "probabilities, not possibilities." Studies of the past shootings showed that 60% of active shooter events are over before the police arrive on the scene. Running from the scene (Evacuate) makes sense since active shooters act alone 98% of the time. And in the last years, 15% of the events were effectively stopped by unarmed citizens.

Congregants work through four scenarios to learn possible responses

The folks in the training class were meeting in the basement of the Presbyterian Church in Chinook. Upstairs, a bad guy with an "air horn to signal shots fired" was believed to be heading to the basement. First scenario the class members turned off the lights and huddled in a corner. Tennis balls, carried by the bad guy to simulate bullets, flew with six hits before the bad guy could be brought down.

In each subsequent scenario students used additional techniques they learned: barricade the entrances with tables, chairs and whatever else is at hand; throw hymnals, purses or anything else available at the shooter to distract them (students learned it's a natural response to duck or flinch from flying objects, even when armed); if possible bodily piling on the shooter and using gravity to get them to the floor and evacuating the area ahead of the shooter. Billmayer said, "A basic response to be safe from a shooter is to flee the scene if at all possible."

In each new scenario, with class members using added ways to respond to a shooter, the survival rates of the class improved. Billmayer explained, "We're trying to get you to use real life responses, not make you ninjas." He showed, as an example, how the chord from an electronic device laying on the counter at the church could be used to secure a door to keep a shooter at bay."

Blaine County Undersheriff Frank Billmayer (left) and Deputy Chris Adair demonstrate how an active shooter's focus can be distracted. The two instructors were presenting an ALICE-based program to several members of local churches in Chinook. ALICE uses options-based protocols one can use in an active shooter situation.

After the training and exercises were completed Billmayer and Adair lead the group through the church to show how slight modifications at various points could make security much better. One suggestion, that many churches are now implementing, is simply to lock the outside doors during a service. Billmayer said, "The statistics show that if a shooter can't easily enter a building to wreak their havoc, they will move on because they don't want to be seen hanging around outside in plain sight."

The deputies said ALICE training helps people look at their surroundings with eyes wide open, not live in fear. Billmayer said, "You are probably wondering if you could really take some of the actions we've talked about and practiced. Studies have shown that a simulation causes the same sort of rise in heart rate and defensive postures as a real event. You've put yourselves through four scenarios that are better than no preparation at all. The main thing is to be aware of your surroundings and be ready to react if a problem develops."

If your business, club or church might be interested in having an ALICE-based training presentation, contact the Blaine County Sheriff's Office for more information. A similar program for church congregations will be presented on September 12 at the American Lutheran Church in conjunction with another event. Call Under Sheriff Billmayer or Deputy Adair at the sheriff's office for details of that event.

 
 

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