Week 7 - Bonus Topic - Active Shooter - JCSO Citizen's Academy

Active Shooter was briefly mentioned in Week 6 but Lieutenant Hill wanted to cover it in more detail so Week 7 started off with his presentation.

NYPD and the Counterterrorism Bureau completed an analysis on Active Shooter incidents occurring from 1996-2010.  Here is a link to the press release and an additional link to the study:  http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/html/pr/pr_2011_active_shooter_report.shtml; http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/html/counterterrorism/active_shooter.shtml.  The full study is available in pdf format via the second link.

The Active Shooter report presents recommendations covering procedures, systems, and training for building security personnel which include:

• Installation of closed-circuit television systems that provide domain awareness of the entire facility and its perimeter; ensure that video feeds are viewable from a central command station.
• Designation of shelter locations with thick walls, solid doors with locks, minimal interior windows, first-aid emergency kits, communication devices, and duress alarms.
• Designation of a point-of-contact with knowledge of the facility's security procedures and floor plan to liaise with police and other emergency agencies in the event of an attack.
• Identification of multiple evacuation routes and practice evacuations under varying conditions; post evacuation routes in conspicuous locations throughout the facility; ensure that evacuation routes account for individuals with special needs and disabilities.
• Active training for occupants of the building on how to react to an incident.

Some statistics found from the analysis include:

• 96% of active shooters are male;
• 98% of active shooter incidents are carried out by a single attacker;
• the median number of deaths associated with active shooter attacks is two, as is the median number of wounded;
• 36% of active shooter attacks involve more than one weapon;
• 46% of active shooter attacks end with force applied by police, private security, or other bystanders, and 40% of active shooter attacks end with attacker suicide or attempted suicide; and
• 41% of active shooters had a professional relationship with their closest victim, however, less than one-third of these cases were perpetrated by individuals who were no longer employed by the organization at the time of their attack, implying that the threat of active shooters is not limited to downsized employees.

Other interesting facts from the analysis include:

• Less than 1/3 of attacks took place at schools
• Roughly 50% occurred at commercial facilities such as office buildings (13%), factories and warehouses (13%) and open commercial areas (23%).  Other areas including airports, hospitals and churches accounted for 22% of the attacks.
• An Active Shooter situation is often over within 10-15 minutes  (This is critical because a good response time by police in emergencies is 6-7 minutes.  The incident could already have turned tragic by time police arrive.)

Mentality of an Active Shooter:

• Desire is to kill and seriously injure without concern for his or her safety
• Usually has intended victims and will search them out
• Accepts targets of opportunity while searching for intended target
• Will continue to move throughout the building until stopped

Indicators of Potential Violence by an Employee include (employees don't typically "snap" but rather display indicators of potential violent behaviour over time:

• Increased use of alcohol or drugs
• Unexplained increase in absenteeism; vague physical complaints
• Noticeable decrease in attention to appearance and hygiene
• Depression/Withdrawal
• Resistance and overreaction to change in policy and procedure or repeated violations of P&Ps
• Increased severe mood swings
• Noticeably unstable, emotional responses
• Explosive outbursts without provocation
• Suicidal comments
• Behaviour which is suspect of paranoia
• Increasingly talks of problems at home
• Escalation of domestic problems in the workplace; talk of previous incidents of violence
• Talk of severe financial problems
• Empathy with individuals committing violence
• Increase in unsolicited comments about firearms, dangerous weapons and/or violent crimes

What can we as citizens do?  Remember police response time on a good day is 6-7 minutes so if presented an Active Shooter situation there are a couple of options we need to consider for our safety:

• Evacuate - if accessible escape path attempt to evacuate.  Be sure to:
• Have an escape route and plan in mind
• Evacuate regardless if others agree to follow
• Leave your belongings behind
• Help others escape if possible
• Prevent others from entering area where the active shooter may be
• Keep your hands visible
• Follow the instructions of law enforcement officers or security personnel
• Do not attempt to move wounded individuals
• Call 911 when safe to do so
• Hide out - if evacuation is not possible, find a place to hide where the active shooter is less likely to find you.  Your hiding place should be:
• Be out of the active shooters view
• Provide protection if shots are fired in your direction
• Not trap you or restrict your options for movement
• Last Resort - if your life is in imminent danger and you are unable to escape or hide, attempt to disrupt and/or incapacitate the active shooter by:
• Acting as aggressively as possible against him/her
• Throwing items and improvising weapons
• Yelling!!!
• Committing to your actions - the more who can respond against the shooter the better the chance of taking him/her down in absence of law enforcement help

Lt. Hill recommends Escape as your first option, Hide-Out as a second option and Attack the Shooter as your last option.  Unfortunately in the last option there likely will be casualties but it is better to have a few casualties and save the masses by disabling the shooter than to lose everyone because no one stepped up to disable the shooter.  Having been in a Active Shooter incident (hospital setting - gang member came in looking to "finish the job") I can tell you that escape is the best option.  When you have a plan in place and know your escape routes it makes a huge difference!  We didn't have any casualties because we knew what to do!  Be prepared, you never know when you might need to execute your plan.

Law Enforcement Response is to stop the active shooter as soon as possible. The first officers on the scene will not stop to help injured persons. Their role is to stop the shooting! Additional rescue and emergency personnel will be along to assist with the rescue effort after the initial officers.

What else can we do?

• Practice common sense
• Contribute to a Culture of Safety
• Vigilance - Be Aware!
• Avoidance - know how to identify a high risk situation and avoid it
• Escape - know when and how to get away from a threatening situation
• Take Yourself off of Automatic

***The Sheriff's Office can come out to your school, office or church to present about Active Shooter Incidents and help you develop a plan to escape/survive if an incident occurs.

Week 7 - Civil Division; Court Security; Courthouse Tours - JCSO Citizen's Academy

Week 7 is Civil Division; Court Security; Courthouse Tours... oh and Active Shooter!

Scarier than jail.........

We actually covered a lot of information last night.  So much information that I'm going to break it up in to a couple of entries: 

Lieutenant Brian Hill kicked off the class by going over Active Shooter Statistics and things we (citizens) can do if ever confronted by an active shooter. 

Captain Mike Raunig & Lieutenant Rick Newson gave an intro to Civil Division then handed off to Sergeant Brian Deer who gave a detailed presentation on the Civil Division.

Finally, Lieutenant Becky Barton, Master Deputy Carl Alvano and Deputy Lucas Eimers led us on a tour of the Courthouse and gave a spirited discussion of it's history as well as JCSO's role in providing courthouse security.

I will give each topic it's own entry.  I might even explain what I mean by "Scarier than jail..."  Still getting my pictures and stats together.  Stay tuned.  :-) 

Week 6 Continued... S.E.R.T./Tactical Considerations - JCSO Citizen's Academy

S.E.R.T.:

S.E.R.T. is another acronym for SWAT.  S.E.R.T. stands for Sheriff's Emergency Response Team.  Here is some of the equipment used by S.E.R.T.:

Lethal and less lethal options.

Very expensive stuff!  Hence why not all deputies are trained and only those selected to SERT use the equipment.  It can be used by other departments and agencies if needed though.

This is one of the robots used by the SERT team.  It has voice, video and stair climbing capabilities.

More pics:

Forced entry in to closed door.

One of the less lethal weapons. 

Some of the participants couldn't resist trying on the equipment! :)

Participants got to "drive" the robot.

Can't imagine having to carry that shield!  Forgot to ask how much it weighs...

Sgt. Moore speaking about the small remote control robot. 
Lt. Hill in the background.

Gear the S.E.R.T. unit wear when going in to crisis situations.

That is a big gun!  Okay so it doesn't shoot bullets but still... 

S.E.R.T.  was started in 2003.  It is a "Life Saving Unit".  The goal of the unit is to end the situation peacefully whenever possible.  Situations rarely end in violence like the movies and TV portray.  Negotiators play a big role in helping to resolve situations peacefully.

Role of S.E.R.T. is to respond in the following situations:

• hostage
• barricade
• high risk search or arrest warrant
• dignitary protection
• high risk incidents in the detention facility
• disturbance or crowd control
• JCSO assisted in Lawrence Monday night after the championship basketball game
• a total of 250 officers from Lawrence and neighboring agencies including JCSO were tasked with controlling a crowd of nearly 30,000. 
• 20 arrests were made (mostly for disorderly conduct)
• scene was quiet compared to the madness in Kentucky
• S.E.R.T. can also assist with Emergency Management
• JCSO sent deputies to Harveyville, KS after the recent tornado to assist with securing a perimeter to prevent looting

S.E.R.T. consists of (2) 10 person teams (deputies on the team are called operators).  One team is on call 24/7 to respond as needed.  The S.E.R.T. team also consists of a commander, an assistant commander, a team leader, 2 squad leaders, 4 snipers, 1 sniper coordinator, 6 negotiators and 6 logistics staff.  Deputies must go through an application/interview process to be placed on the S.E.R.T. team.  Deputies must be physically and mentally fit to be on this team.  Sgt. Moore and Lt. Hill emphasized that deputies on the S.E.R.T. team must have a level of "maturity" to be a successful member of the team.  S.E.R.T. deputies receive additional training on top of their 40 hours of training required of all deputies.  Training may include SWAT specific training in-house or through specialized agencies.  Typically they will go through 16 hours of additional training monthly.  Currently there are no women on the S.E.R.T. team.  There have been women on it previously though and women are not excluded from the team just because of the physical components.  If they can complete the requirements, they can be on the team just as any male deputy can.


Field Tactics/Tactical Considerations:

Deputies will often work in pairs of 2 to serve warrants.  Can go out in uniform/marked cars or undercover depending on situation.  In some cases, letters are sent out prior to execution of warrant to give individual opportunity to surrender (these are generally low risk warrants such as misdemeanor). 

Forced entry may be made if probable cause, fresh pursuit or reasonable suspicion.  Safety for individual in question, public and for deputies is given priority over everything else!  Deputies would prefer to end a situation peacefully by communication rather than use force but must be prepared for anything and everything. 



Next week is introduction to the Civil Division and Court Security.  I am also scheduled for my first ride along soon and will add an entry for that. 

Week 6 - Warrants & S.E.R.T./Tactical Considerations - JCSO Citizen's Academy

Week 6 was led by Captain Pennington, Lieutenant Hill and Sergeant Moore.  Warrants and S.E.R.T./Tactical Considerations were covered.  I will break it up in to 2 entries starting with warrants.

Types of Warrants:

• Arrest (Probable Cause)
• Bench (usually something like Failure to Appear)
• Civil Contempt (majority of these are child support)
• these typically will be cash only bonds and whatever $ is gathered for the bond goes directly to the mom/kids towards the back child support owed
• Criminal (Felony versus Misdemeanor)
• District Court Probate Order
• these are few and far in between but usually involve picking someone up who is an outpatient with mental illness and deemed not fit to be outpatient status/may be a danger to self or others without proper treatment
• Juvenile
• follow same classifications as adult but apply to those under 18 years of age
• Juvenile Court Pick Up Order
• Child in Need of Care Emergency
• Material Witness
• Can be a witness or victim
• Usually ordered by judge because the individual has refused to voluntarily testify
• Municipal Warrant
• JCSO serves warrants for City of Spring Hill
• JCSO acts as police for DeSoto and Edgerton and therefore will serve municipal for these cities
• Traffic
• County Code Violations
• Out of State/Out of Country
• JCSO is often contacted by out of state or out of country law enforcement agencies to see if fugitive is still in JC

Requirements of a Warrant:

• Name of person to be arrested
• Description of charge
• Judge Signature (yes - judges really do get woke up in the middle of the night to sign warrants!  Depends on severity, etc but many times a warrant can't wait until morning so the judge will be contacted for signature so that the warrant can be executed right away.)
• Type of Bond
• Cash
• can only pay $ to get released (common in child support cases)
• Cash/surety
• may use bond company
• Personal Recognizance
• usually a misdemeanor with no criminal history and no flight risk
• No Bond
• in serious crimes like murder bond may not be an option or it can be set really high

JCSO has approximately 9000 active felony and misdemeanor warrants in the system.  Agencies will often share information to help locate those wanted for warrants.  JCSO receives approximately 32 new warrants a day.  10 on a low day, 70 on a high day.  In 2011, 7960 warrants were received by JCSO.  6354 of those were executed or recalled by the courts.  701 arrests were made from these warrants of which 311 were felony arrests.  293 were for misdemeanor charges and 97 were for civil or traffic charges. 

For Extradition or Fugitive Warrants out of state, JCSO may use a private transport service or may use their own deputies depending on risk level.  Extradition is the official process whereby one nation or state surrenders a suspected or convicted criminal to another nation or state.  Extradition can be waived (meaning the individual refuses to voluntarily return to the state or nation issuing the warrant).  If waived, a Governors Warrant must be issued.  This takes more time, manpower and $ to bring the individual back and is a bit archaic in it's process.  Many law enforcement agencies would like to see the Governor's Warrant be eliminated.  Many criminals try to hide from warrants by not creating a paper trail in their lives or moving out of state.  Diligent Effort and Statute of Limitations complicates the effort to locate and prosecute individuals on warrants. 

Arrest versus Search Warrants:

An arrest warrant must be based on a complaint that alleges probable cause that the person named has committed a specific offense, and it must be issued according to the formalities required by the rules of the court.  LEO's must only have a belief that the individual is inside to have authority to go in and arrest them.

A search warrant is a type of warrant that authorizes law enforcement officers to search a specified place for evidence. Without a search warrant, police officers may not search a place without its owner’s consent.  Anything in plain sight can be seized as part of a search warrant.  Probable cause is needed to look in drawers, closets, etc for things out of plain view.

Forced entry issues:  when it's a fresh pursuit or reasonable suspicion entry can be made by force as necessary to preserve evidence or arrest an individual.  A fresh pursuit may be halted if risk of danger is greater than benefit of arresting individual or preserving evidence.

JCSO lists warrants on their web page at: http://www.jocosheriff.org/index.aspx?page=98. However, these are not high risk warrants! For safety reasons only misdemeanor warrants for things such as Failure to Appear are listed. It is a searchable database so you must have some idea of who or what you are looking for.


(I know, I know... I'm a cop magnet so what you really want to know is have I had a warrant served on me?  Well I wonder how many people actually READ my blog???  Hint, hint... we have to pass a records and background check to attend the academy!  Oh and that counter thing on the side of the blog tells me people are at least clicking on my blog...)

Next entry will be about S.E.R.T./Tactical Considerations.

Pictures from EVOC day - JCSO Citizen's Academy

Some pictures from our day at EVOC (March 31, 2012).  Thanks for taking the pictures Bill! 

Oops... some of us can't follow directions and didn't wear our academy shirts!

Have fun but don't wreck the car!

People were brave enough to ride with me when it was my turn to drive! 

 

Me waiting to start the course.

No, I did NOT take a souvenir!  I promise that hubcap was gone when I got in! 

Someone kicking up dust!

Oops!  I won the cone killer award but I wasn't the only one to knock down cones...

Hmm... Not really liking the back seat! 

Emergency Vehicle Operator Course (EVOC) - JCSO Citizen's Academy

On Saturday March 31, 2012 we got an opportunity to spend about 3 hours with the training staff on EVOC.

This was one of the portions of the academy I was most looking forward to and they did not disappoint!  After being driven through the course by a deputy first at slow speed to describe it then at accelerated speed, we were then let loose to drive the course.

EVOC course 03/31/12

We ran several practice runs and then a qualifying run.   The practice runs we're fun and sometimes scary!   During one run with a fellow classmate I couldn't resist getting on the radio and asking the deputies if they were saying a prayer for me (because of how many cones the participant had already knocked over or side swiped).   That got a few laughs and one deputy responded they were saying "Hail Mary's" for me !   :)

The qualifying runs were done hot with lights and sirens.   The young gun of the class had the fastest time at 59 seconds.   I'm pretty sure I had the slowest time due to my penalties (3 second penalty for each cone hit) so we'll just avoid mentioning my time!

Here is the link to my qualifying run.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VsbkdXo_Vk&feature=youtube_gdata_player.

One of the patrol cars we abused on the EVOC course.

Hoping to load more pictures another participant took once they are available.

I took home the "Cone Killer" award!   My prediction that I would knock over the most cones was true.   Oops!   I'm kind of disappointed with that because I actually hit zero cones during the practice runs.   The deputies said that once the sirens come on people tend to make more mistakes.   I guess that was true for me.   Oh well, I'll accept the "Cone Killer" award.   Had a lot of fun!   Thanks JCSO!!!

Week 5 Continued... Accident Investigations - JCSO Citizen's Academy

A discussion and slide show about Accident Investigations was led by Sergeant Brad Brown and Deputy Greg Smith.

The role of law enforcement in accidents is to determine the cause, who is at fault and file criminal charges if necessary. 

Deputies dispatched to accident scenes who are part of the investigation team must try to preserve the evidence long enough to get it recorded.  That can be challenging when injuries are involved.  Being former EMS I can tell you that the patient is priority and evidence sometimes gets disturbed while focusing on the patient.  Sorry leo's!

Deputies will use a number of tools to help identify and capture evidence.  Aerial shots are taken when possible.  Photos are taken immediately.  Things deputies look for include:  tire marks, fluid trail, scrape marks, debris, etc. to try and determine direction of travel, speed, etc.

Diagrams are made.  Sketching used to be the method but thanks to technology computers can now create animated diagrams to help reconstruct the accident. 

Distracted driving is one of the biggest causes of accidents!  Distracted driving is any activity that could divert a person's attention away from the primary task of driving. All distractions endanger driver, passenger, and bystander safety. These types of distractions include:

• Texting
• Using a cell phone or smartphone
• Eating and drinking
• Talking to passengers
• Grooming
• Reading, including maps
• Using a navigation system
• Watching a video
• Adjusting a radio, CD player, or MP3 player

Deputies showed a video of some amazing crashes. Some resulted in fatalities, some were non injury but all were an eye opener as to how easy it is to get in to an accident and how fortunate we are when no one gets hurt!

In 2009, 5,474 people were killed in crashes involving driver distraction, and an estimated 448,000 were injured.  16% of fatal crashes in 2009 involved reports of distracted driving.  20% of injury crashes in 2009 involved reports of distracted driving. 

In Johnson County 13,039 accidents were reported in 2011.  3916 were determined to be caused by distracted driving compared to 50 caused by DUI.  In unincorporated JC, 121 accidents were attributed to distracted driving compared to 48 caused by DUI. 

Because text messaging requires visual, manual, and cognitive attention from the driver, it is by far the most alarming distraction. Texting is up 50% from 2009 (which means the likelihood of cause of accidents by distracted driving is much higher than 20% now).  Sending or receiving a text takes a person's eyes off the road for approximately 4.6 seconds or the amount of time needed to drive the length of a football field if traveling at 55mph. 

Using a cell phone while driving - whether it's hand-held or hands-free delays a driver's reactions as much as having a blood alcohol concentration at the legal limit of .08 percent.

Distracted Drivers are 23x's more likely to have an accident than someone who is not trying to multitask while driving. 

Need more reason to put the phone down while driving? View the videos here of people affected by Distracted Drivers. http://www.distraction.gov/content/faces/index.html.

The most dangerous intersections in Johnson County? 199th Street & 169, followed by I35 (south where the speed limit increases to 70) and then 175th Street & 169. Be careful on the roads!

A great resource for information about Distracted Driving including the stats sourced in this blog and ways to get involved to help reduce Distracted Driving is the Distraction.gov web page which can be found by following this link: http://www.distraction.gov/.

Remember earlier when I mentioned I am a cop magnet?  Well, one of my traffic stops last year was for texting while driving.  The trooper made a deal with me, no ticket if I would lock my phone in my glove box.  I took the deal.  Now I try to make a conscious effort to not text or read email, fb, twitter, etc while the car is moving.  About the only thing I will do with my phone now while the car is moving is answer a phone call and even that I don't do unless it's an important call.  It's just not worth the risk of getting involved in an accident...