Ill. First Responders to Participate in Active Shooter Training

WOOD RIVER — Local police and other first responders will be undergoing realistic training for “hyper-violent” encounters during two days of active shooter training at Lewis and Clark Junior High School in Wood River.

Officers from the Wood River, Bethalto, South Roxana, Hartford and Roxana police departments, and the Madison County Sheriff’s Office will be participating, according to Wood River Police Officer Brandon DeSherlia, one of the organizers. Also participating will be local fire departments and ambulance services.

“It’s to enhance our abilities to respond,” he said.

The training will be held Tuesday, July 19 and Thursday, July 21. Breaking up the days allows officers working different shifts to participate.

While local departments have done active shooter training for many years, last year they have started adding more realism.

“In the past training for hyper-violent encounters has been static, it hasn’t been very realistic,” he said. “The problem is, in the past the officers were trained in a non-stressful, almost classroom environment.”

By adding stress during the training, he said participants would be better able to operate during an actual active shooter situation.

The exercises will include numerous role-players, including victims (both real people and dummies) with realistic wounds.

“We are going to delve a little into the terrorism aspect of it,” DeSherlia said. “We have seen the rise of home-grown terrorism.”

DeSherlia noted that active shooter response has changed over the years, beginning with the 1999 shootings in Columbine High School.

“There have been numerous paradigm shifts,” he said. “The initial response by police was to show up, set up a perimeter and call SWAT. I know from first hand experience a legitimate SWAT response is going to take a while.”

Tactics initially evolved to using three- to five-man teams.

“That’s not what stops the killing either,” he said, referring specifically to the Sandy Hook Elementary shootings. “It wasn’t even the presence of an officer, it was the sound of the sirens… That’s happened time and time again. We’ve seen that what stops the killing is confrontation, the mere presence of someone.”

Today, the first officer on the scene is expected to move aggressively toward the shooter and neutralize them.

Another major change that occurred after Sandy Hook was the medical response. According to DeSherlia, police found that many times people died of limb wounds because they bleed out.

“We are aggressively pushing to get our fire department in there as soon as possible,” he said.

DeSherlia said they have been making an effort to let neighbors know what will be going on.

“We sent out mailers on two occasions, a month out and last week,” he said. “The day of we also put out signs that say ‘Emergency Responder Training.’”

Reach reporter Scott Cousins at 618-208-6447.

©2016 The Telegraph (Alton, Ill.)

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