Menu
Prevention, awareness key in active shooter events
Many speakers would balk at opening a speech the way Dr. Richard Hogue did on Wednesday evening at the Greencastle High School Parker Auditorium.
Brought in by the Putnam County Sheriff’s Department and the Indiana State Police to speak on unarmed response to active shooter events, Hogue admitted that there are limits to his own expertise, as well as that of ISP.
“We don’t have all the answers,” Hogue stated frankly very early in his presentation.
However, Hogue went on to show this lack of defined answers not as a limiting factor, but as a framework through which anyone can be as prepared as possible for an active shooter event.
“We provide options,” Hogue said. “We look at what’s happened in the past and we give things people might want to do to keep their families safe.”
Unfortunately, scholars of active shooter events like Hogue are getting way more information than they’d prefer these days. Details of events like Columbine, Sandy Hook, Pulse Nightclub, the Las Vegas Strip and Marjory Stoneman Douglas seem to run together as the incidents become more frequent.
ISP Superintendent Doug Carter acknowledged this in his introduction of Hogue.
“Every time I come and do this, I’d like to tell you all is well,” Carter said. “I can’t do that today.
“Ladies and gentlemen, society is a mess — an absolute mess.”
As a law enforcement officer, he takes these ongoing breaches of public safety personally.
“You expect people like me — dressed like me, whether it be blue, brown, green — to protect you from evil and we’ve failed,” Carter said.
Carter added that there is hope.
“We’re going to get through this, albeit a little bit changed.”
That change hinges on prevention and awareness, two topics Hogue emphasized throughout the event.
One key to the model Hogue and ISP have worked together to develop is a broadening of definitions and scope of what an active shooter is as well as how citizens can respond.
For the purposes of how ISP responds to such an event an “active shooter” doesn’t have to be someone with a gun.
Instead, it is one or more subjects who participate in a random or systematic attack demonstrating their intent to continuously inflict death or serious injuries on others. They can do this, not simply with guns but with “firearms, knives, clubs, explosives, airborne vehicles and or motor vehicles.”
Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, Hogue sought to expand and clarify the commonly-accepted “Run, hide, fight” model normally encouraged by active shooter experts for ways that civilians in such a situation can respond.
Rather than “run,” the first leg of Hogue’s model is “escape.” He emphasized that “running to a safe place is a good idea — running blindly is not.”
Instead, he encouraged people to “run intelligently,” with the understanding that if you don’t know where the shooter is, running is probably a bad idea.
He also urged being aware of any situation you might find yourself. Anyone entering a room in a public place should plan ahead, thinking of primary and secondary paths out should a situation arise.
Next, simply hiding is not good enough. Instead, Hogue urges people to look at the second leg as “lockdown.”
Again, primary and secondary plans should be sought. These plans should include not simply being under or behind something, but inside a room with a secure door — rapidly secured by a lock or barricade — preferably both.
Hogue also encouraged staying out of the line of sight and fire, as well as on one’s feet. He added that shooters in these situations are usually looking for easy victims, so they will likely move past a door that does not open easily.
Finally, the fight leg of the model remains unchanged, but Hogue encouraged pre-identifying possible weapons as well as making sure the attacker is in “your circle of violence.”
This means making sure you are in range to attack them should they enter a room. Find a position of advantage and don’t be 20 feet across a room, where the shooter’s gun can reach you, but the chair you are holding does no good.
In all three legs of the model, he encouraged practice. In times of trouble, we all have a tendency to freeze. This is natural, but practicing can reduce this time and determine what comes next.
“If you practice and you think about things,” Hogue said, “you will respond better.”
Hogue also reminded his listeners that the model does not simply progress from Plan A to Plan B to Plan C.
“Our model is non-linear,” Hogue said. “You may have to fight and hit him with a chair. Then you escape. And then you might shelter in a safe place. Then later you may escape.”
As important as planning and response are, Hogue said everyone prefers never having to cross that bridge.
“We believe prevention is preferable to response,” Hogue said.
While it may be naive to think we can stop every active shooter event, Hogue believes that on a case-by-case basis, they are preventable.
“We’ve yet to find any of these events where somebody didn’t know,” he said.
While mental illness is not an end-all, be-all in determining who will become an active shooter, it is often a contributing factor.
Hogue said to also watch out for “injustice collectors” — those who believe that nothing is ever their fault, cruelty to animals, weapons obsessions and mass shooting obsessions, among other factors.
These are all possible warning signs that show such events are not isolated incidents, but the culmination of many things going awry in someone’s life.
“Afterward we hear, ‘Aw, he just snapped.’ No, he didn’t,” Hogue said. “We look at these individuals and they give us all kinds of indications.
The key is to keep an eye out for signs of trouble and report them when we see them. Carter said he hopes for increased trust in law enforcement in preventing future events.
“Imagine what would’ve happened if people in communities across this nation had trusted law enforcement and told them what was going about to happen,” Carter said. “I’d like to think I wouldn’t be standing here today.”
Active shooter preparedness resources are available for schools, businesses and other organizations through the Indiana State Police. For more information or to request a presentation, visit http://in.gov/isp/3191.htm.