SINGLE OFFICER ACTIVE SHOOTER INTERVENTION

3 Days/24 Hours

SYNOPSIS:

The Active Shooter threat has not only become more prevalent, but it has also transformed into a new dynamic. The Terror oriented Active Shooter threat.

This new dynamic presents a far greater complexity, determination, motivation, and propensity for a much higher degree of damage and casualties.

What has not changed or slowly shifting unfortunately is the Police capability to effectively respond to this threat.

Conventionally, Active Shooter threat has always been a lone mentally ill perpetrator, acting on ill-emotional/mental motives, and in well most of the incidents the perpetrator take his own life long before Police response is even on scene.

Police elements would be hitting the ground engaging a non-active, controlled, violence free environment.

This is what the foundation for the knowledge and design of the initial Active Shooter Intervention/IRD methodology and protocols have been platformed on. This is still the platform that is implemented and deployed today across the North American Policing institution.

The three objectives for an Active Shooter/IRD deployment are as follows (and prioritized in order):

1: Terminate the threat as fast as possible.
2: Save AS MANY innocent lives as possible (only achievable by terminating the threat as fast as possible).
3: Officer Safety.

The currently deployed Active Shooter Intervention/IRD methodology, protocols, and strategy, address these three objectives, but only in theory and not in practice. In practice, they negate these three objectives.

The current methodology, protocols, and strategy focus on the requirements of the minimum number of Officers, Teamwork/Formations, controlled environment/range shooting principles, and Tactical operation applications. These are all principles that will not lend themselves to any of the three objectives in a fast-paced, uncontrolled, chaotic environment where the threat is not only still alive and functioning, but is also trained, equipped, and focused on engaging the Police response, and even worse, has accomplices.


Objective:

This Best Practices course focuses on the two crucial elements necessary for effective dynamic Active Shooter Intervention, first; is to enhance and optimize the individual Officer’s ability to effectively survive, dominate, and neutralize a deadly threat during a violent, deadly force engagement under stress in an uncontrolled threat environment. The second is to enhance and optimize the Officer’s ability to respond effectively to and terminate an Active Shooter attack in minimal time, minimizing the loss of innocent civilian lives.

This course will educate officers on the real outcomes that occur during a Terror oriented Active Shooter attack and provide them with the necessary mindset, knowledge, and tactics to rapidly assess, dominate, and resolve the incident. Specifically, this course will focus on Immediate Rapid Deployment strategies for Active Shooter attacks, which require immediate action with minimal availability of back-up, resources, and specialized equipment in a civilian-populated environment such as the transit system, a school, shopping mall, hospital, office building, or an airport.

The foundation for this course is the Single Officer response methodology that establishes the platform for the integration of a multiple Officer response. Currently, in North America, even though many Law Enforcement agencies have begun to adopt the mindset and the protocol of a Single Officer response, there are no truly dedicated Single Officer response methodologies taught to Officers. Instead, Officers are either trained in conventional SWAT tactics (which do not work for the Single Officer and are the wrong application for an Active Shooter incident as it is), or they are not trained at all on how to mitigate this threat on their own.

Given facts such that single Officers engage many of the Active Shooter incidents, and that the most predominant target of attack are schools where SRO’s work solo, the Single Officer response methodology is a must.

The methodology this course is based on meets North American Law Enforcement
Use of Force justification and articulation criteria and will drastically raise the probability
of results for:

• A higher percentage ratio of Officer survivability during violent, stress-induced, deadly force engagements specifically in ambush or terror-oriented attacks.
• A higher percentage ratio of innocent civilian lives saved by Police during an Active Shooter intervention.
• Reduced risk of collateral damage to innocent civilian bystanders during an Officer’s response to violent, deadly force engagement in a crowded environment.

This Terror Threat oriented intervention methodology is conducive to safely, rapidly, and effectively responding to and resolving an active shooter incident of a mentally ill oriented threat. Still, the conventional, currently deployed Active Shooter/IRD methodology, which was designed for the sick mentally oriented threat, will not be conducive to safely, rapidly, and effectively resolving a terror oriented active shooter attack.

Subjects covered:

• Understanding the mindset, objective, and deployment of a terror oriented Active Shooter Attack
• Understanding the difference between engaging a criminal and a terrorist
• The critical element that a terrorist possesses that will define and create the type of engagement the Officer will face and the required method to respond
• What’s required to dominate and transition from the attacker’s control to the Officer’s domination of the incident
• The strategies that must be implemented in response to an Active Shooter/Terror Attack to ensure minimal loss of innocent civilian lives
• How to ensure minimal collateral damage to innocent civilians during a deadly force engagement in a civilian-populated/crowded environment
• Dynamic Response Shooting for the handgun and/or Patrol Rifle, including:
  • Threat identification under stress in a crowded environment
  • Effective instinctive shooting/recovery method principles and platform
  • Engaging threats at various distances and various angles
  • Engaging multiple threats in a hostile environment
  • Dominating the engagement
  • Shooting from unconventional positions (kneeling, from the ground)
  • Re-loading and clearing malfunctions under stress
  • Proper use of and the right time to use the cover during a violent engagement
  • Engaging an armed threat in a crowded environment
  • Proper post-engagement threat assessment and protocols
• Effective rapid response and intervention strategies and tactics to an Active Shooter attack for Single and Double Officers
• Effective strategies and tactics for operating in a rapid, uncontrolled, and chaotic environment
• Room entry and clearing tactics that optimize Officer safety and dominance versus currently implemented entry tactics that leave Officers exposed and ineffective to engage.
• Effective tactics to maximize a single officer’s ability to engage multiple threats in a 360° environment

METHODOLOGIES

This course employs lectures, discussions, demonstrations, practical, and drills.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

100% Attendance. Complete all practical exercises, including Passing the speed/accuracy shooting test

Required equipment:

• Semi-automatic handgun with holster, a minimum of 3 magazines with belt pouches, and 750 rounds of ammo.
• Range safety gear, knee pads, and comfortable dress for dynamic physical training.

CERTIFICATION

FORCE IMI Certifications

Learn about the FORCE IMI Instructors here.