Training for saving lives

They’re preparing everyone for the unthinkable — a group of terrorists or a madman shooting at civilians in a crowded public place.

Over the last few months, the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office has hosted several Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training, or ALERRT, sessions for law enforcement personnel from throughout the region.

Now the sheriff’s office is offering to teach community members how to respond to active shooter incidents.

Two presentations are available for Kootenai County businesses, schools and other interested organizations.

A one-hour presentation, “Workplace Violence — Active Shooters,” includes Idaho law for workplace violence and instructions about how to prepare for and respond to being trapped inside a building during an active shooter event. There is a longer, four-hour presentation that includes the workplace violence information, but is more in-depth and includes the history of active shooter events from 2000-2013.

The ALERRT program was developed in Texas in 2002, after the tragedy at Columbine High School. Following the 2012 Sandy Hook school shootings, the FBI partnered with ALERRT, making the organization’s response protocol the national standard for the FBI’s special agent tactical instructors. Since then, state and local police departments throughout the U.S. have adopted ALERRT procedures as the standard for responding to active shooter incidents, ensuring law enforcement officers arriving on the scene understand how others are trained to respond.

Because funding for ALERRT training often falls short, train-the-trainer courses were developed to help meet the increased demand for the training by state, local, tribal and campus law enforcement agencies.

Last summer, the KCSO hosted three ALERRT Active Shooter classes at Lakeland School District’s Garwood Elementary in Rathdrum. During one of the classes, 21 law enforcement professionals from various agencies in Idaho, Washington and Montana received the train-the-trainer training, including six individuals from the KCSO. Additional 16-hour training classes for responding to active shooter incidents were also offered by ALERRT instructors with assistance from the newly trained KCSO deputies. Those classes were attended by 45 law enforcement students, including 23 from the local sheriff’s office.

Earlier this month, another 16-hour ALERRT class was hosted by the sheriff’s office, this time at Betty Kiefer Elementary in Rathdrum. This class was instructed by six ALERRT-trained sheriff’s deputies and was attended by 26 county law enforcement professionals: 21 KCSO patrol deputies, three sheriff’s office detectives, two jail deputies and two county court bailiffs.

Schools or businesses interested in scheduling an educational session on responding to an active shooter should contact KCSO Community Service Officer Gary Shults at (208) 446-2121.