LAPD staff debriefing University of New Mexico-Los Alamos personnel Friday following Active Shooter Training on campus.are, from left, Sgt. Daniel Roberts, Evidence Technician Anthony Lucero, Cpl. Robert Stephens, Det. Joey Robinson, Cpl. James Keane and Cpl. Adele McKenzie. Photo by Kateri Morris

LAPD Community Liaison Team Sgt. Chris Ross answers questions during a recent Active Shooter Training. Photo by Maire O’Neill/ladailypost.com

In thinking about the possibility of an active shooter/threat incident occurring in this community, one doesn’t typically imagine being the first responder at the scene. Yet nationally, statistics show that 60 percent of the time, an active shooter has completed his shooting in under five minutes, usually shooting once every four to 15 seconds … with most of the victims targeted in the first few minutes.

The national average response time for a law enforcement officer to arrive on the scene is two to 10 minutes, but in actuality, it is more like six to 10 minutes. Calls to 911 are often not made for several minutes after the incident begins, making time the number one enemy for responding law enforcement.

What’s sobering about this information is that anyone could be the first responder in an active shooter/threat situation. For several years now, the Los Alamos Police Department has been providing active shooter training in the community. Sgt. Daniel Roberts and Cpl. Jack Casias first introduced the program in collaboration with Los Alamos National Laboratory and eventually brought it over into the community. They were joined by Sgt. Chris Ross as well as School Resource Officers Cpl. Adele McKenzie, Cpl. Robert Stephens, Cpl. James Keane and Evidence Technician Anthony Lucero.

Sgt. Roberts, LAPD accreditation manager and a hostage negotiator, says there is enough of a demand for active shooter training in the community now that LAPD is presenting the program sometimes twice a week and also has been invited into other areas. As well as offering the training at schools, LAPD offers it for any business, church or community group and has already provided training to banks, churches, schools and just last week to the University of New Mexico – Los Alamos.

Police Chief Dino Sgambellone said LAPD’s active shooter program is a significant part of its overall public safety situation.

“We continue to work with the schools and our other community partners to educate and train on this important program,” he said.

Chief Sgambellone said since the event in Florida, he has heard from parents and students in phone calls and emails, and that he always welcomes contact with parents, students and business owners.

LAPD officers have been working with Los Alamos Public Schools, helping them run drills, making suggestions, offering them different ways to look at things and in the past year, being part of the school district’s safety team.

Chief Sgambellone said he and his staff have been looking at additional safety measures for Los Alamos schools and anticipate having further discussion with school leadership in upcoming meetings.

LAPD Community Liaison Team Sgt. Chris Ross says he doesn’t have a problem giving the presentation as many times as he needs to.

“It just sickens me that these things are continually going on. It needs to stop – especially in the schools and we need to figure out some way to do it. Getting this information and knowledge out there is not going to prevent these incidents but hopefully it’s going to limit the carnage and that’s a huge step in the right direction,” he said.

Roberts says the training has changed a little each year since the Columbine High School shooting and now gives people the opportunity to participate in realistic scenarios. While many entities provide active shooter training, few provide the scenario component used by LAPD which has been hailed by law enforcement officials from throughout the country for giving participants something to fall back on during an active shooter/threat event.

Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT), used by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the ALICE (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate) option-based tactics have become the accepted response in many places including Los Alamos, replacing the single-option lockdown only approach. By enacting scenarios which incorporate the concepts of Run, Fight, Hide, people have something they have seen and put into action so that should something happen, they know what to do.

“Our program is not just about active shooters, it’s more about active threats. It’s about people learning about themselves and how to respond. We put them in a controlled environment, a very rapidly changing and fluid situation where they have to rely on things we don’t practice every day,” Roberts said. “There’s a lot of situational awareness involved and people often take for granted that they will respond in a particular way.”

He said people get on social media and elsewhere following tragic events such as the recent shootings in Florida and ask, ‘Why didn’t they do this, why didn’t they do that?’.

“But you don’t know what you’re going to do until you’re in that situation. What’s good about our program is that we put them in that situation, so that the next time they actually know what they’re going to do,” Roberts said.

Ross said when the team conducts the hands on scenarios and compare their responses with just implementing lockdown procedures, they realize the vulnerabilities they have in general in that one protocol.

“When we give them tools and they can actually put them to work during the scenarios, the one message we get back from them is that the feel empowered. That to me means we are doing our job. If a person can feel empowered, it means that they are capable of not just understanding but know how to implement the tools, having gone through the process of actually exiting a building or actually barricaded a location or looked for improvised weapons in an area,” Ross said. “That empowerment let us know that we’re doing our job.”

One of the quotes used often during the active shooter training is, “The body will never go where the mind has never been”.

“I think a lot of people don’t think about the situation or how they will react. Our human nature is that we tend not to think about that stuff,” Roberts said. “So, it’s always positive when people come to us after the training and say they were surprised by their reactions and they understand more what to do.”

Ross said the initial response prior to the scenarios is that there is a lot of fear.

“People are afraid of what’s going to happen because we are shooting blank rounds to give them a real sense of the situation. A simulated gunshot doesn’t sound anything like a real gunshot. We take all the appropriate safety protocols to make sure we do it properly because we want participants to get that the experience. If I go out there and pop a bag, it’s not the same. With blank rounds, you’re going to get the sound, the smells, the dust that comes out of the buildings. It’s a hands on feeling of actually going through it and all of it starts to click. In two hours you see people move from fear to empowerment,” Ross said.

Sgt. Roberts said the program also tries to get people way from focusing on guns only as threats.

“People also go out there and stab other people. There have been multiple times where there have been 20 or 30 victims from stabbings in schools. You don’t what a person is coming with and just because you don’t see a gun doesn’t mean the person can’t be an active threat to other people around you,” Roberts said.

Comments from UNM-LA participants:

• What I mostly took away is that you have to have thought through a scenario in your head in order to be able to physically react a certain way with your body. You won’t think as creatively in the moment of an incident otherwise.

• We learned that posting room numbers from the inside of the room can be done easily and cheaply. It can help you identify your location if you’re hiding in an emergency.

• Making the community aware that you are trained and have thought through how to react can be a deterrent.

• Learning how to be aware of your surroundings and available exits can make the difference in how you will come out of a situation. This lesson is transferrable to everywhere you go.

Any organization wishing to schedule active shooter/threat training can call Sgt. Daniel Roberts, 505.663.1819 or Sgt. Chris Ross, 505.663.1874 for more information.