Glendale police learn to prioritize students over themselves in active shooter training
'Every officer's got to be ready for this, especially our school resource officers and our patrol officers," said Glendale police Sgt. Trevor Goode, who led the training July 1. "They have to be ready to respond to this terrible situation that could occur."
Glendale schools are not immune to gun violence. In 2016, two 15-year-old students were killed with a gun in a murder-suicide at Glendale Union High School District's Independence High School.
All officers, sergeants and lieutenants in the Glendale Police Department are required to undergo active shooter training, but this was the first training many officers had conducted on school grounds, according to Officer Jude Soine.
'The last time we did training like this was years ago, shortly after Columbine," said Soine. "So it was totally different and slower-paced than what this is. This was much more aggressive."
Unlike the Glendale Police Department's training facility, which officers know well, using Deer Valley High School for training allowed police officers to interact with an unfamiliar layout, much like they would in a real active shooter situation, Goode said.
To recreate a realistic scenario, classroom doors were locked randomly, and hallways included trip hazards.
At the beginning of some training scenarios, an officer would fire a weapon from somewhere within the school, and actors would scream for help and sprint from the scene. Officers would then try to locate the shooter using indicators, such as running crowds, gunshots, gunsmoke and shell casings.
The training was supposed to evoke a high-risk, high-stress environment, Goode said. Officers were taught how to safely make their way down school hallways during a lockdown and enter a classroom potentially containing the shooter using a technique called 'the rabbit and the hero,' where an officer enters a room quickly to draw fire while a second officer trails them to take the shooter down.
'We have to be able and willing to drive into the threat to face that gunman down,' said Goode. 'I do want my officers coming in as fast as they can. I do want them to risk a lot to save a lot because there's kids in here that are completely innocent.'
Throughout the training, Goode told officers that what was being taught was not the safest way to handle the situation, but the fastest, prioritizing the lives of students over their own, and that it may feel "foreign."
'When we respond to something, we're trained to keep ourselves safe, but also preserve life, protect property,' said Sgt. Moroni Mendez, a Glendale police spokesperson. 'But when we have an active killing, an active threat, that kind of goes out the window.'
Prioritizing speed over officer safety is in large part a response to criticism of police response to past school shooter incidents, such as Uvalde, Texas, in 2022, where law enforcement officers faced criminal charges for failing to intervene promptly, according to Sgt. Brian Hoskin. In Uvalde, 19 elementary students and two teachers were killed. Nearly 80 minutes passed from the time the shooter began firing until he was killed by police.
"We're training this so that people have it in the back of their minds just in case we ever have to come across this," said Hoskin.
While the training was conducted within a school, the benefits translate to any populated area, Mendez said.
'It's really impactful," he said. "It has been for my career because it paints a vivid, clear and realistic picture of what I could potentially face when that threat is present at one of our schools, one of our malls, one of our public areas or spaces."
Coverage of education solutions on azcentral.com and in The Arizona Republic is partially supported by a grant from the Arizona Local News Foundation's Arizona Community Collaborative Fund.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Why police were training inside a Phoenix-area high school
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