Civilian Response to Active Shooter

Hays County Sheriff Gary Cutler and Lt. David Burns put on a great program regarding Active Shooter.  Sheriff Cutler also shared some great information about what is happening with the bond money we passed last year. To view the Power Point presentation by the Sheriff, click on the link below:

Some highlights include:

Our county covers over 680 square miles and crimes in our growing county from 2016 to 2017 include:

19% increase in crime against persons and property

3% increase in property crimes

Animal control actually decreased

Drug Offenses are up by 17% year over year

 

Progress from the bond package:

The Public Safety Bond should be complete by end of 2019

The jail currently holds 317 inmates and the county has a total of 571 inmates, thus costing the county $13,000 per day to outsource inmates (that's $4.7M per year).   The new jail will house 1,000 inmates and will be able to house and charge for other inmates in our system.

The link/power point presentation has many details you will find interesting.  The Sheriff wants folks to know the progress and how this bond expenditure will improve our law enforcement services.

 

 

 

Lt. David Burns, a 20 year veteran officer with Hays County and trainer walked us through the actions necessary during an active shooter situation.  He conducts the ALERT training to over 300K first responders across the US.  ALERT = Advanced Law Enforcement Response Team.  For additional resources, he conducts training all across the county and suggests you and/or your workplace or organization attend this training.  the ADD (Avoid, Deny and Defend) video can be found on line through the Hays County website.

 

52% are in commerce (mall, work)

28% have been in education (all levels and campus sizes)

12% have been outdoors

8% have been in churches or entertainment venues

50% of the shootings venues have had a connection to the shooter

The shooter:

* no profile

* Avenger mindset

* Some broadcast of thoughts

 

So what is the plan?

Avoid - get away, run

Deny - don't let them enter your space

Defend - come together and attack

This program does not expect concealed handgun license holders to interject themselves into a situation, simply to defend themselves.

 

Disaster Response is in 3 stages.

1. Denial - a normalcy bias of situations

2. Deliberation - ADD

3. Decisive moment

The longer you are in the denial phase, the less likely you are to get away!  Deliberation is deciding on the action to take and the decisive moment is taking action. 

 

# of deaths is relative to how quickly police arrive and target availability.  Call 911 as soon as possible - don't assume someone else is making the call.  3 minutes is the average Law Enforcement Officer response time in the US.

When the police arrive they:

* Stop the killing

* Stop the dying

* Evacuate the area

So when they arrive:

* Follow Commands

* Show your palms

* Do not move unless told to do so by law enforcement

* Don't name the shooter - gives them fame.

Currently our schools are doing SRP drills  and following the protocol of Locks, Lights out, and Out of site.