Understanding & Assisting Law Enforcement Response

1. Law Enforcement Response To SchoolLaw Enforcement Response To School
Hostage / Active Shooter IncidentsHostage / Active Shooter Incidents
Understanding & Assisting Law Enforcement Response
Program Provided by
LETAC ™
Law Enforcement Tactical Concepts
http://members.nbci.com/WYTAC/index/Page_1.html
© Copyrighted Material

2. IntroductionIntroduction
 Hostage and Shooting Incidents unfortunately
are nothing new in our schools and appear to
be on the rise.
 There may come a time when there is a need
for rapid Police Patrol or Tactical Unit
response to conduct an emergency rescue
operation at your school.
 What Is meant by emergency rescue is, the
school is in the hands of a person or persons
bent on terrorism and has or will use violence
or threat of violence to accomplish their goal.

3.  Now Law Enforcement intervention is
necessary. Containment of the situation,
attempted negotiations with the suspects for
a peaceful resolution or possibly even violent
means may be necessary to save lives.
 The information contained in this Program
is, straight forward and not sugar coated, for
the express purpose of understanding &
assisting Law Enforcement in keeping as
many people as possible safe and uninjured.

4. Hostage Rescue & BarricadedHostage Rescue & Barricaded
Suspect / Active Shooter InterventionSuspect / Active Shooter Intervention
• The Mission Objective is to bring
about the successful resolution of
any of the critical incident situations
with the intent and purpose to
minimize the risk of injury or loss of
life to citizens, police officers and
suspects, by utilizing the personnel,
training, equipment and assets
available or obtainable.

5. • There is no foolproof way to do this.
• You, your students, and your Police
Officers are not considered expendable in
any way.
• An emergency rescue (if necessary) and
the building search that would follow are
some of the most lethal activities a Police
Officer will perform.

6. • The terrorists or suspects have a considerable
advantage over the entering team and if they are
determined, will in all probability, at least injure one
or more of the team members or hostages /
victims.
• The officers on your Police Agency realize and
accept the dangers, they also realize if they do
nothing, more people will die or be injured then if
they had taken action.

7. Guarantee of SafetyGuarantee of Safety
 Please understand, the Police cannot
guarantee your safety in a critical incident.
 However, rest assured that your Police will do
everything in their power so everyone will go
home.
 You can best help us to accomplish this by
knowing and considering the information that
follows.

8. Barricaded SuspectBarricaded Suspect
 This normally is a criminal suspect with
known or unknown violent potential that has
barricaded him / her self (alone or with other
suspects/ persons) in a structure and refuses
to surrender to Law Enforcement.
 These situations normally provide ample time
for detailed planning and negotiations.
 Note: These person/s are normally armed
and there is the potential for a transition to an
active shooter and or a hostage situation.

9. Active ShooterActive Shooter
 This situation is a Barricaded Suspect/s or an
outdoor movement situation where the suspect/s is
actively discharging a firearm at Law Enforcement
or Citizens and or randomly firing into an area
where it is reasonably expected that persons could
be struck by the suspect/s fire.
 These situations leave little or no time for proper
planning and normally require first arriving Law
Enforcement units to take immediate action to end
the danger.
 Note: Active shooter situations can and often do
develop into hostage situations upon the arrival of
Law Enforcement.

10. Hostage SituationHostage Situation
 Any Hostage Situation is a Barricaded
Suspect/s situation with the addition of
innocent person/s being held against
their will by violence, threat of violence or
the potential for violence.
 These situations most of the time provide
time for detailed planning and
negotiations.
 Note: Hostage Situations often develop
from Active Shooter situations or have
great potential to develop into them.

11. Remember!!!Remember!!!
 If terrorists do take your school (make no mistake,
they are just that), you must keep your wits in
order (THINK).
 If the situation is a Hostage or Barricaded incident
and there is no active attempt by the suspect to
take lives, the police will take a negotiations
stance with the suspect.
 This will take time and is SOP to avoid escalation.
 If the suspect starts injuring or taking lives you can
(in most cases) expect a rapid change in tactics.
 This will be made perfectly clear to the suspect
during negotiations (his safety depends on yours).

12. In Class or OfficeIn Class or Office
 If you are in a classroom, room or office,
STAY THERE, secure the door.
 If the door has no lock and the door opens in
keep a good heavy door wedge on hand and
drive it in as hard as you can.
 If the door has a window, cover it if you can.
 Have someone watch while you get as many
students out the windows (ground floor) as
calmly and as quietly as possible.

13.  Have the students that get out move toward
any Police unit while keeping their hands on top
of their heads and do exactly and immediately
what the Police tell them to do.
 If no Police units are yet on scene move well
away from the school and find safe cover
positions (not the parking lots) and wait for the
police to arrive.
 Don’t leave the area entirely, you may have
information that responding Police Officers will
need. Once in a safe place stay put.
 If the windows don’t open, or you cannot break
them, or you are not on a ground floor, get out of
sight from the door and stay low and quiet.

14. In The HallwaysIn The Hallways
 If in the hallways, get in a room that is not
already secured and secure it.
 Unless you are very close to an exit, don’t run
through a long hall to get to one, you may
encounter the gunmen or hostage taker.
 Don’t hide in restrooms!

15. In Large RoomsIn Large Rooms
If in a gym or theater area and the
gunmen or hostage taker/s are not
present, move to and out the external
exits and move toward any police unit.
Again keeping your hands on your
heads. Do what the police tell you!

16. Trapped With The Gunmen / Hostage TakerTrapped With The Gunmen / Hostage Taker
If you are trapped with the gunmen,
don’t do anything to provoke them.
If they are not shooting, do what they
say and don’t move suddenly.
Only you can draw the line on what you
will or will not do to preserve your life or
the lives of others.

17.  If they do start shooting people, you need
to make a choice, (at this point it is your
choice) stay still and hope they don’t shoot
you run for an exit while zig-zaging or even
attack the shooter.
 This is very dangerous, but certainly no
more then doing nothing and dieing in place.
 A moving target is much harder to hit than
a stationary one and the last thing that the
shooter will expect is to be attacked by an
unarmed person.
 Again this is not a recommendation to
attack the shooter but rather a choice to fight
when there is only one other option.

18. Hostage / Barricaded SuspectHostage / Barricaded Suspect
ResponseResponse
 The first Police units on the scene will be
Patrol Units; their primary function is to set up
a perimeter around the school.
 This perimeter is two fold, to keep the
suspects from escaping (containment) and to
prevent further innocents / suspects from
entering.
 These Officers will take no action against the
suspects and will initiate the incident
command structure.
 Fire and Emergency Medical units will be
staged close by but normally out of sight.

19. • Negotiators will attempt contact with the suspect/s
as soon as possible with the goal of reaching a
peaceful resolution with the hostages released
unharmed.
• During the negotiations phase command elements
and tactical units will make contingency plans for
marksman intervention and or hostage rescue by
tactical entry personnel.
• If negotiations fail and or innocents inside are
being engaged by fire or other means, the Tactical
Unit will make immediate assessment of the
situation, make entry, move to contact and end the
threat.

20. Active Shooter ResponseActive Shooter Response
 Again first arriving police units will set up a
hasty perimeter.
 Quickly assess the situation, approach
method and entry point.
 Immediate action will then be initiated to get
to and stop the terrorist’s action.
 This is called different things by different
Agencies, Patrol Tactical Response,
Extraordinary Deployment, Rapid Response,
etc.
 You may wish to check with your Agency to
insure they have trained in this capability.

21. Vital Intelligence InformationVital Intelligence Information
 If there is time on any incident, the Incident
commander will attempt to obtain pre-entry
intelligence on the following:
 The suspects: who, why, the number of,
descriptions, their location, their training and
or abilities.
 Weapons or explosives: type, numbers, and
their possible locations.
 Hostages: who, numbers, possible injuries
and their locations.

22.  The School and Police Dept. should
work together to keep current building
information on file with the Police so it
will not necessary to do this at the time
of an incident.
 If this information can be obtained
before it is necessary to enter, the
success of the entry will be greatly
increased.

23. If Entry or MarksmanIf Entry or Marksman
Engagement OccursEngagement Occurs
 In the event negotiations fail, the situation
involves an active shooter or the suspect is
engaged by a marksman, an entry of Tactical or
Patrol Officers will take place.
 You must be aware of the following if this occurs.
 Everyone in the building will be considered a
suspect until known otherwise.
 With this in mind, when the team of officers
makes contact with you, do not run towards them
(you may draw fire), keep your hands visible and
respond immediately to their commands.

24. • Remember that the team will engage with
fire, anyone that is armed or moves on the
team in what may be perceived an aggressive
manner.
• The team will be moving rapidly to locate,
identify and engage the terrorists.
• The team may have to enter without all the
needed information on the terrorists, so any
perceived threat may be met with force.
• The last thing any of us want is to have an
innocent wounded or killed by friendly fire.

25. • Unless the team of Officers has a large
number of personnel you must be aware that
they cannot and will not stay with you or assist
injured victims until the threat of continued
danger is terminated.
• This is a necessary function of their job; they
have to stop the terrorist threat now.
• This is not heartless or negligent, it is in the
best interest of all victims, wounded, uninjured
and potential, that the continued danger be
terminated so that Emergency Medical
Personnel can be safely brought in or victims
safely evacuated.

26. • If you are near the terrorists when the
team makes entry, there will be rapid
movement, possible alarms, explosions,
smoke, loud continuous commands to get
down and gunfire.
• The best thing you can do is drop as low
as you can and stay there, with your
hands visible until the team commands
you to get up (even if the team leaves the
area where you are).

27. • When you are commanded to get up place
your hands on your heads and do exactly
what you are told, remember you will still be
considered suspects until you are evacuated
and checked out.
• The team, when ready will escort you from
the building.
• If the terrorist(s) are shot by Tactical Unit
Marksmen, get down as low as you can and
stay put until the entry team comes for you.
Do not try to get out of the building on your
own.

28. Bomb & Fire EvacuationsBomb & Fire Evacuations
 On bomb or fire evacuations, stay away from
parking lots and be alert for anything out of
the ordinary or suspicious.
 The bomb threat or fire alarm may be a way
to bring people in proximity of a car bomb or
sniper.
 This has and is being used by domestic and
foreign terrorists to bring their victims into
their kill zone.
 Stay alert and keep cover assets in mind at
these times.

29. ConclusionConclusion
 This program is not all-inclusive, but if
understood and followed-up with training, it
will increase your chances of surviving a
hostage / terrorist incident.
 Our world is and can be a suddenly violent
place! Your Police are doing the best that
they can under heavy restrictions to make it
as safe as we can.
 Your help will make this much more possible
and effective.