CA Review ___AF___
Meeting Date: Sept. 13, 2022
To: Mayor and City Council
From: Scott Chadwick, City Manager
Staff Contact: Reid Shipley, Lieutenant
[email protected], 442-339-2257
Subject: Carlsbad Police Department’s Preparation and Response to Active Shooter Incidents
District: All
Rec
ommended Action
Receive a presentation from Police Department staff regarding its preparation efforts and planned response to active shooter incidents.
Executive Summary
The law enforcement response to an active shooter has changed substantially over the last two decades. During that time, the Carlsbad Police Department has also evolved to be consistent with the most contemporary views on the strategic and tactical response to such an event.
This report provides an overview of the multi-faceted approach the Police Department has developed to prepare for an active shooter in Carlsbad. It includes training, equipment, education, collaboration with the community and other government agencies along with effective, potentially life-saving responses to active shooter incidents based on threat assessments and available intelligence.
Discussion
Background
The department defines an “active shooter” as an “armed person (not necessarily shooting or even armed with a firearm) who has used deadly force on other persons and aggressively continues to do so while having unrestricted access to additional victims.” Communities across the nation have been attacked by active shooters in a variety of settings including schools, places of worship, business offices, malls, mass transit locations, amusement parks and large public events such as marathons, music festivals, parades, and street fairs.
History
Mass casualty active shooter incidents are not a new phenomenon in the United States. The first recorded incident occurred at the University of Texas in 1966. San Diego had an early event at a McDonald’s restaurant in 1984 that resulted in the loss of 20 lives. Carlsbad is not immune to the potential of active shooter related violence. In 2010, an individual scaled the fence at Sept. 13, 2022
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Kelly Elementary School and began shooting at students on the playground. Several construction workers on campus intervened and tackled the gunman. The two children who were shot fortunately only sustained non-life-threatening injuries.
Devastating mass shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999 and the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas in 2017 dramatically changed the nature of law enforcement response to active shooter incidents, as well as the public understanding of the need for preparation and pre-deployment.
FBI statistics demonstrate that the country experienced a 33% increase in active shooter incidents from 2019 to 2020, and a 52% increase from 2020 to 2021.
The shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, and Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, have raised concerns over law enforcement’s active shooter response and underscore the significant need for investment in the ongoing training, development and equipping of public safety personnel and the community.
Police Department’s philosophy
Law enforcement’s response to active shooter incidents has evolved during the past two decades. Police agencies’ allegiance to a safety-first mindset, lack of training and equipment, and failure to address injuries after the threat was neutralized resulted in potentially avoidable loss of life. The active shooter response philosophy of the Carlsbad Police Department hinges on two fundamental principles: “Stop the killing” and “Stop the dying.” Stop the killin g
When an individual makes the determination to indiscriminately attack innocent people, it is the responsibility of the members of the Carlsbad Police Department to intervene immediately and decisively, even at great risk to themselves. History indicates, when law enforcement arrives at an active shooter incident, the shooters either surrender, take their own lives, or engage police personnel. All three actions serve to interrupt the shooter’s ability to harm additional victims.
The immediate priority of arriving officers is to prevent any harm to anyone else.
Stop the dyi ng
Once a shooter is no longer able to harm additional victims, law enforcement efforts must switch immediately to provide aid to those who are injured.
Injuries sustained during active shooter incidents may be survivable with rapid medical intervention. Having police personnel with training and medical equipment, working collaboratively with paramedics, increases victim survivability, reducing the loss of life.
To accomplish these two objectives a combination of clear expectations, training, equipment, collaboration with the public and other governmental agencies, and pre-incident deployment and preparedness are essential.
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Policy expectations
The Police Department has a policy that specifically addresses the response to active shooter incidents. Policy 424-Rapid Response and Deployment provides direction to officers responding to an active shooter incident:
“If a suspect is actively engaged in the infliction of serious bodily harm or other life-threatening activity toward others, officers should take immediate action.” This policy is intended to ensure that department personnel understand their responsibility to intervene immediately to minimize the potential for loss of life.
This important obligation and expectation of officers is reinforced through ongoing training.
Ongoing officer training
Each officer employed by the Carlsbad Police Department undergoes extensive training in tactics and strategy in responding to violent events. Officers are provided eight training sessions a year specifically related to the safe, legal, ethical application of force. During these training sessions. officers are confronted with a variety of scenarios that reinforce sound tactics and overall judgment. Officers train to concepts rather than specifics to allow for broad application to the infinite possibilities they may encounter. The training also serves as an opportunity for officers to remain familiar with specially issued equipment that the department has acquired to enhance the ability to respond to an active shooter event.
Department-wide active shooter training
The Police Department regularly conducts training related to active shooter incidents. We have conducted this training at a variety of venues to ensure the department’s familiarity with the different locations in an emergency response. Previous trainings took place at the following locations:
• Farmer’s Building (to simulate a response to a large office building) • La Costa Canyon High School
• Hope Elementary School
• Carlsbad Safety Training Center
• Aviara Oaks Middle School
Most recently, the Carlsbad Police Department conducted active shooter response training for its personnel at Aviara Oaks Middle School from Aug. 8 - Aug. 12, 2022. The training was updated from previous years to include learning points derived from more recent active shooter events, such as the Uvalde school shooting. The training involved a presentation on legal requirements, policy and tactics, skills-building stations, tactical combat casualty care provided by the Fire Department, and several large-scale scenarios involving live role players.
Each officer was given a full eight hours of training with an emphasis on the following:
• The moral imperative of rapid response and the expectation that even solo officers will take immediate action to deploy a concept of “stop the killing” • Breaching skills to acquire rapid access to classrooms • Deployment of rescue teams, consisting of police and fire personnel, to apply immediate lifesaving medical aid to support the mission of “stop the dying” Sept. 13, 2022
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• Integration with Fire Department personnel and employment of the Rescue Task Force, allowing police and medical personnel to respond to dangerous environments together SWAT/active shooter instructor training
The Carlsbad SWAT Team is responsible for providing tactical training to the department in a variety of capacities. Active Shooter Instructors are selected from SWAT operators and attend additional POST-certified instructor training.1 Carlsbad SWAT supervisors and several team members regularly attend the California Association of Tactical Officers conference. The conference provides instruction from some of the country’s best legal, tactical and leadership instructors. The conference also provides timely debriefs of major domestic and international active shooter incidents and provides insights and development guidance for continued departmental improvement.
Equipment
Each officer is equipped with tools and equipment that positions them to immediately and individually respond to an active shooter incident. Standard-issue equipment for each officer includes:
• Patrol rifle with extra ammunition
• Body armor and ballistic helmets designed to protect personnel from rifle rounds. • Tourniquet
• Medical trauma bag (assigned to every vehicle)
Additionally, supervisors, and many individual officers are assigned breaching equipment, ballistic shields and less lethal equipment. The officers assigned less lethal equipment receive special training and certification.
Many of the items that allow officers to respond to active shooter incidents were recently approved by City Council as a component of the department’s Military Equipment Use Policy, which was adopted by the City Council on April 19, 2022.
Public education and engagement
The Carlsbad Police Department recognizes the value of sharing information with the public and using strong relationships as a force multiplier. With this philosophy in mind, the department’s team of officers who lead our active shooter training developed its “Run, Hide, Fight,” education program in November 2016. This program was designed to teach many of the concepts of Active Shooter response to civilians. The course teaches community members concepts to increase their levels of awareness before, during, and after a critical incident such as an active assailant/shooter incident.
The course has been offered to local businesses, schools, government entities and places of worship, among others. This training has also been offered at community forums, such as the City’s Citizens Academy, the department’s Police Academy and Public Safety Open House events. The run, hide, fight training is provided without charge and can be requested by any group or organization within the city. Since 2017, the Police Department has conducted over 80 training events providing this potentially life-saving information to over 3,400 people.
1 The Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training, or POST, sets the selection and training standards for California law enforcement agencies.
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The department is developing a video-based training to allow broader accessibility for the community and to meet the high demand for the training.
Site su rveys
Preventative actions also serve as a core element of the Carlsbad Police Department’s preparations. In January 2016, the department began the process of scouting, assessing, and developing an emergency response plan for every piece of property determined to be critical infrastructure in the city. This included city facilities, schools, large businesses, vulnerable locations, and places where large groups of people congregate. The assessment files include pertinent information such as entrances, exits, floorplans, gas, electric and water plans, emergency contact information, security codes and other information that might be needed immediately in a response to an active shooting incident. The surveys also provided suggestions and guidance for the improvement of security, or protocols to better safeguard employees and patrons.
In the case of high-profile or high-risk locations, the Police Department has partnered with the San Diego Law Enforcement Coordination Center
2 to conduct these surveys with 3D renderings
of every space in the location, providing responding personnel better situational awareness of the location and allowing for the effective deployment of resources.
Training at priv ate and city venues
In addition to surveys and education, the Carlsbad Police SWAT Team regularly trains for potential active shooter events at venues throughout the city. Training at diverse locations not only improves the team’s capabilities, but also allows those organizations to better understand police response while increasing the Police Department’s knowledge of the location.
These training locations include:
• The Gemological Institute of America
• The Shoppes at Carlsbad
• Legoland
• ViaSat
• McClellan-Palomar Airport
• Carlsbad Municipal Water District offices
Integration with the Carlsbad Fire Department
The outstanding collaboration between the city’s Police and Fire departments significantly augments ongoing training efforts and response capability.
Historically, one major barrier to preventing loss of life was the ineffective integration between fire and police personnel. Traditionally, fire personnel would wait a distance away from the incident until the scene was rendered safe and they could enter and care for patients in a secure environment. However, the nature of active shooter and mass casualty incidents does not allow for this level of security and holding back costs valuable time and could contribute to the unnecessary loss of life. The city’s SWAT/Paramedic Program provided the foundation for an easy integration to tactical scenarios for all police and fire department personnel.
2 The San Diego Law Enforcement Coordination Center intelligence, investigative and technical support to agencies critical to homeland security efforts in San Diego County.
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The city uses what is known as the Rescue Task Force model to integrate police and fire personnel at an active shooting scene to render lifesaving aid with police protection before the location can be rendered safe.
Additionally, fire personnel have provided police employees with the tools and training to immediately provide lifesaving aid to treat traumatic, life-threatening injuries. This aid, when properly provided in a timely manner, can prevent the loss of life. Tourniquets, occlusive dressings3, and hemostatic gauze are assigned to every officer and have been employed in multiple real-world events in which the victims of traumatic injuries were saved by this valuable program.
To ensure that responding Fire Department personnel are prepared to respond to critical incidents, the Police Department purchased protective equipment, including ballistic vests and helmets, for fire personnel to wear during Rescue Task Force operations.
Collaboration with schools in Carlsbad
The City of Carlsbad is home to three high schools, three middle schools, and multiple elementary and private schools. The Police Department encourages field personnel to visit schools in their area of responsibility to gain familiarity with the locations. School resource officers are available and respond to all schools within the city. School resource officers are tasked with liaising with school administrative personnel and conduct ongoing risk assessment and recommendations to school staff.
The Police Department endeavors to collaborate with each school and district within the city to provide for a safe learning environment for our students. The department has provided assistance to schools in the areas of pre-incident response planning, injury treatment response, and developed plans to provide law enforcement with access to school property when needed.
School th
reat protocol
The Police Department takes every potential threat of violence seriously. The San Diego County District Attorney’s Office has developed a school threat protocol to ensure that the threat of violence is thoroughly investigated. The Carlsbad Police Department follows this protocol diligently and consistently with every potential threat.
Police Department response to large public events
Large-scale public events that bring together significant numbers of people represent an increased concern should an individual seek to do harm. In response to previous national tragedies, the Police Department has taken the following actions:
All special events are reviewed by a lieutenant who has the responsibility for coordinating the Police Department’s response, ensuring that adequate traffic control and enforcement personnel, assigned officers and volunteers will be available.
The following resources may also be required, based on available intelligence, the nature of the event, size and location:
3 Occlusive dressings are used for sealing particular types of wounds and the surrounding tissue off from air, fluids and contaminants in a trauma or first aid situation.
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• Department-owned barricades specifically designed and deployed to protect against vehicle attacks
• Explosive detection K9 dog-and-officer teams available through a mutual aid request • The use of aerial drones to monitor crowd size and activity • Department-owned observation tower
• Department’s mobile surveillance trailer
• A command post to support command and control of the incident • Threat and intelligence monitoring from the San Diego Law Enforcement Coordination Center
An event action plan is prepared for special events to provide information and written guidance to personnel assigned or responding to an event. The plan details specific considerations surrounding the event and identifies contingency plans for potential emergencies.
Additionally, the Carlsbad Police SWAT Team has assumed the responsibility of staffing selected special events with pre-staged rapid-response personnel and equipment to reduce the response time to an emergency. These personnel are strategically placed and are supplemental to the uniformed personnel assigned to the special event. Additionally, the SWAT Team has the Police Department’s armored rescue vehicle available to further our “stop the killing/stop the dying” mission at a life-threatening incident. It is the objective of these rapid-response resources to be near the event, generally out of the public view, but equipped and prepared to immediately respond to any active shooter incident and provide trained team members capable of rapidly transitioning to rescue operations.
Some events that have utilized many, or all, of the special events and SWAT resources include:
• The Carlsbad Street Fair
• Carlsbad Marathon, Triathlon, Carlsbad 5000 and other large sporting events • During large scale First Amendment assemblies, to protect protesters from attack while they are exercising their constitutional rights
• Large school functions such as graduations
• Other public city events that draw large crowds or have a heightened potential for conflict
Mass casualty incident training
The Police Department participates in large-scale training incidents that simulate significant active shooter attacks at a variety of locations. These scenarios require the cooperative operations of multiple police, fire, city, county and venue staff. Regular inter-departmental training fosters the experience and collaboration required to manage a mass casualty incident at a large venue. These training incidents include:
• Mass-casualty incident at the Legoland California Resort that included multiple police and fire agencies responding to a fictional incident involving multiple assailants at the theme park. The city activated the Emergency Operations Center to support the training exercise.
• County-wide tabletop exercise involving the County Emergency Operations Center and representatives of every municipality in the county working to resolve a series of fictional attacks that occurred at multiple public venues around the county.
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• Multiple agency response to an active shooter incident at the McClellan-Palomar Airport.
Fiscal Analysis
There is no fiscal impact in receiving this departmental report.
Next Steps
The Police Department views its preparations for a potential active shooter as a continuing and high priority responsibility. It includes:
Training
The Police Department is currently developing training in several areas. Following the recent active shooter response training, we plan to offer supervisor level training with a focus on incident command, “stop the dying” and inter-department cooperation.
As police, fire and school supervision must collaborate during active shooter incident, the Police Department is preparing training for school administrators. This will be designed to improve mutual awareness of response capabilities and to increase the value of intelligence available to maximize the effectiveness of police/fire response.
Equipment
The Police Department is in the early stages of testing incident management software that utilizes the city’s existing GIS program. The application should allow real-time situational awareness of personnel and enables information sharing and objective identification.
The Police Department is also scheduled to evaluate a tethered UAV program that allows a drone, connected to a stationary location (such as the command post) to be deployed during special events.
Community en gagement
The active shooter instructor group is developing a video to make the department’s “Run, Hide, Fight” training available to a larger audience. Additionally, the Police Department intends to continue site surveys and security assessments at additional Carlsbad venues.
Environmental E valuation
This action does not constitute a project within the meaning of the California Environmental Quality Act under California Public Resources Code Section 21065 in that it has no potential to cause either a direct physical change or a reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment.
Public Notification
This item was noticed in keeping with the state's Ralph M. Brown Act and it was available for public viewing and review at least 72 hours before the scheduled meeting date.
Exhibits
None.
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PREPARATION AND RESPONSE
TO ACTIVE SHOOTER INCIDENTS
Mickey Williams, Chief of Police
Reid Shipley, Police Lieutenant
September 13, 2022
STAFF RECOMMENDATION
Receive report from the Police Department
regarding the police preparation and response
to active shooter incidents
ITEM #10 ACTIVE SHOOTER TRAINING
TODAY’S PRESENTATION
• Department philosophy and policy
• Training
• Equipment
• Community engagement
• Collaborative efforts
ITEM #10 ACTIVE SHOOTER TRAINING
DEPARTMENT PHILOSOPHY AND POLICY
STOP THE KILLING STOP THE DYING
ITEM #10 ACTIVE SHOOTER TRAINING
“If a suspect is actively engaged in the
infliction of serious bodily harm or life-
threatening activity toward others,
officers should take immediate action.”
REGULAR TRAINING
TRAINING
• Mindset
• Rapid deployment
• Breaching
• Medical aid
• Integration with Carlsbad Fire
ACTIVE SHOOTER
• 8 Sessions annually
• Dynamic decision making/
de-escalation scenarios
• Reinforce skillsets for daily field
operations and critical incidents
EQUIPMENT
PATROL RIFLE
RIFLE PLATES
BALLISTIC HELMETS
INDIVIDUAL
TOURNIQUETS
TRAUMA
BAGS
ITEM #10 ACTIVE SHOOTER TRAINING
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENTS
• Run, Hide, Fight Training
• Site surveys
• Private and city venues
PUBLIC EVENTS
• All events are reviewed by a
department lieutenant
• Resources for large scale attacks
• Surveillance options to provide
awareness
• Rapid response teams
• Carlsbad Fire Department personnel
• Event Action Plan document for each
occasion
COLLABORATIVE EFFORTS
Integration with Carlsbad Fire Department
Schools and businesses within Carlsbad
School threat protocols
ITEM #10 ACTIVE SHOOTER TRAINING
ITEM #10 ACTIVE SHOOTER TRAINING
STAFF RECOMMENDATION
Receive report from the Police Department
regarding the police preparation and response to
active shooter incidents