STOVER, Mo. — School may be out, but for local law enforcement, class was still in session last week, as they used a local campus to train for an “active shooter” scenario.
On Thursday, May 28, the Morgan County Sheriff’s office, in partnership with the Morgan County R-1 School District, conducted real life exercises for law enforcement officers from five agencies. The training, known as L.A.S.E.R. (Law Enforcement Active Shooter Emergency Response), provides officers with new skills and knowledge for one of the nation’s most critical incidents: armed intruders in public places.
On-site instructors thanked the school and Morgan County Sheriff Jim Petty, Chief Deputy Tony Wheatley, Lieutenant Mike Nienhuis, and Lieutenant Cody Worthley for their support. The Morgan County Sheriff’s office provided the equipment as well as salaries for the instructors while Morgan County R-1 School allowed full use of its facility. Other participating law enforcement agencies present for training were the Camden County Sheriff’s office and police departments from California, New Bloomfield, and Warrensburg.
All too often, tragedy plays out in an American school when a gunman enters the places where the most valuable and vulnerable citizens can be found: children. After the school incident in Columbine, Colorado, law enforcement agencies developed new tactics for dealing with this threat now understood to be unrelated to hostage situations. Instead, school shootings involve one or more armed assailants moving through a building crowded with potential targets. Such a threat calls for a rapid response by police to neutralize the threat before more victims are injured or killed.
L.A.S.E.R. training brings a set of simple, straightforward tactics to personnel in every agency that might respond to a radio call about shots fired in a school (or shopping mall and similar settings). Any officers arriving on the scene, no matter what departments they are with, will have the same basic skills and tactics allowing them to advance as a team effectively and safely through the building and quickly end the threat to limit the number of victims and make it safe for medical responders to stabilize and transport the wounded.
The Department of Homeland Security developed L.A.S.E.R. training now in use by instructors Sergeant Skyler VieBrock and Deputy Jake Judd of the Morgan County Sheriff’s office. Their certification comes through Louisiana State University, National Center for Bio-Medical Research and Training, Academy of Counter Terrorist Education. The program includes a full day of classroom instruction where officers learn about the details of past incidents and the newest techniques for an effective response.
On day two, the officers do real-time exercises to develop skills as they work through various scenarios based upon past events. These scenarios are set up using sound effects to simulate conditions in an actual school building. School students and adult volunteers act as people would during a crisis.
The entry team of two to six officers received a radio call about “shots fired at the school” and enters to move rapidly toward the sound of gunfire and screams. Every second counts when searching for a gunman actively shooting somewhere in the building. But a blind rush into the area can cause more problems or cost an officer his or her life. The critical skills of effective, rapid, and safe clearance and advancement through the incident scene are drilled over and over as officers advance with training weapons shooting plastic pellets. The use of sound effects and pellets creates a high level of realism and induces stress necessary for valid training and skill retention.
Each scenario plays out with an instructor following the team. After completion, the instructor gives a critique. The team hears what they did well and what they could do better. They then try to improve their performance in a subsequent scenario.
Students receiving Certificates of Completion are:
      Captain Tony Helms, Camden County Sheriff’s Office
      Sergeant Jimmy Brashear
      Bruce Crider, Stover P.D.
      Chad Boles, Warrensburg P.D.
      Tyler Zumwalt, California P.D.
      Eathan Fowler, Camden County Sheriff’s Office
      Thomas Kitchen, Camden County Sheriff’s Office
      Travis Morris, Camden County Sheriff’s Office
Citizens owe a great debt of gratitude to the departments that support this level of training and to the men and women who go through eight hours of grueling drills in a hot school building in order to make schools and public places safer.
The next training dates are July 16 & 17 with the Johnson County Sheriff’s office.
