Time to Protect the Protectors
Apr 19, 2009 — Last week's deadly rampage at the American Civic Association in Binghampton, N.Y. and the murder of 3 police officers in Pittsburgh, PA illustrate the need for an immediate paradigm shift in law enforcement training and response.
In both cases, the responding agencies appeared to act with diligence, professionalism and honor. However, those who chose to "Protect and Serve" are facing increasingly complex and disproportionate violent threats. As a result, State and local agencies must move to improve the crisis response training for patrol officers and the tactical medical training of our law enforcement personnel. Two specific actions should be taken.
#1 Improve Active Shooter training for patrol officers responding to high risk, multi- casualty events:
In Binghamton, Jiverly Wong killed 13 and wounded 4 immediately. By the time SWAT arrived, he had turned the gun on himself, leaving about 20 hostages frightened but physically unharmed. Would a more rapid response have changed the outcome? Probably not this time. However, had Wong decided to continue killing hostages rather than turning the gun on himself, 13 could have easily been 35.
Should we be critical of Binghampton SWAT? At this point, I don't think so. Special Operations teams are designed for high risk and complex missions, but they require time to get organized.
"The national standards for mobilizing a SWAT team is 60 minutes," said Sean McKay a former SWAT medic and Associate with the Asymmetric Combat Institute. "Binghampton SWAT was there in 43 [minutes], but patrol officers were on scene within 3 minutes of the first 9-11 call. That is why we push for Active Shooter training for patrol officers."
Perhaps we should we look for more effective ways to respond.
Massachusetts law enforcement agencies support the need for continued reform. In response to the Columbine tragedy in 1999, law enforcement agencies recognized that local police and patrol officers were far and away the most common first responders to high threat mass shooting incidents. With excellent foresight, the Massachusetts State Police Special Tactical Operations and Tactics (STOP) Team and the Boston Police Department SWAT Team began a program to train patrol officers to respond to "Active Shooter" scenarios- situations with the potential for large numbers of casualties such as a bank robbery gone wrong or school shootings.
"Since Columbine, we have trained several thousand officers from local, state and federal agencies in response to active shooter scenarios," noted one STOP team operator. "We teach them, that if there is risk of continuing civilian harm, they should communicate the situation to dispatch, muster local resources and, once they have 4 or 5 officers, engage the threat if possible."
An officer from Boston SWAT agreed but added, "We need to do more. Schools, in particular, are still very vulnerable."
#2 Provide patrol officers, first responders and Special Operations Law Enforcement Teams with enhanced Tactical Medical and Rescue Training:
On Saturday, patrol officers in Pittsburgh responded to a domestic disturbance call and were ambushed by a gunman armed with an AK-47. The first officers were critically wounded and lay dying in the perpetrator's yard while SWAT officers mobilized and attempted to secure the scene.
This type of violent scenario is increasingly common and highlights the need for integrated tactical medical support. The first principle of conventional Emergency Medical Services (EMS) is scene safety- a premise that is critical for preventing unnecessary injury to medics from building collapse, downed power lines or environmental threats. However, in an active shooter scenario, "safety" is redefined.
The National Tactical Officers Association (NTOA), the National Association for Emergency Medical Technicians (NAEMT) and the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) all embrace the concept of integrating specially trained medical providers-a concept is known as Tactical Emergency Medical Support (TEMS)-- into law enforcement training and operations.
"TEMS has clearly been shown to improve operational effectiveness, decrease innocent loss of life and facilitate interagency [fire, police, ambulance and hospital] response to crisis," noted Dr. Greg Ciottone, Chair of the Harvard Medical School Disaster Section and an Emergency Medicine physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
Just as the 9/11 attacks were a wake- up call to our national security apparatus, the assaults at Columbine, Beslan in Chechnya, Mumbai and now Binghampton illustrate the need for an evolution in our law enforcement practices. Our long term response to these violent trends must be societal and multifaceted. However, in the short term, increased "Active Shooter" training for patrol officers, improved tactical medical integration, and medical and crisis programs for educators are critical first steps.
Dr. David Callaway is the Director of The Operational Medicine Institute at Harvard Medical Faculty Physicians and works closely with several local Special Operations law enforcement teams.