Training Law Enforcement to Respond to Active Shooters

Tragic events such as the September 2013 mass shooting at the Washington Navy Yard and last year’s mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, have continued to increase the demand for training that shows law enforcement how to best respond to active shooter situations. The Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance and the FBI have partnered with Texas State University to expedite and increase the delivery of this critical training to state and local law enforcement throughout our country. At the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT) Center at Texas State University, officers receive critical active shooter response training to effectively and safely respond to an active shooter event. The ALERRT curriculum is dynamic force-on-force, scenario-based training. It has been adopted by the FBI as the national training standard for active shooter response, and has been provided to more than 40,000 police officers nationwide. As Attorney General Eric Holder commented in his remarks earlier this month to the International Association of Chiefs of Police: “The reality is that police don’t always have the luxury of time to get their most highly-trained, best-equipped officers on the scene. To save lives, the first officers to arrive must sometimes be the ones to directly engage an active shooter. That’s why all law enforcement officers must have the best equipment and most up-to-date training to confront these situations. We owe these officers nothing less.” The training and support provided at the ALERRT Center is a critical component of the VALOR initiative, a response to the increase in assaults and violence against law enforcement. ALERRT training is designed to help prevent violence against law enforcement and ensure officer resilience and survivability. Watch this video http://youtu.be/sJ2ZtegiRp4 to see what people are saying about ALERRT training and the difference it’s making in preparing our first responders for tomorrow’s challenges.