JACKSONVILLE — At the Jacksonville Police Department, law enforcement officials are helping civilians become better prepared for active-shooter situations.
CRASE (Civilian Response to Active Shooter Events) training is presented by the department to area schools, businesses, hospitals and other workplaces that request the class. CRASE is a program through the ALERRT (Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training) Center, which is based at Texas State University in San Marcos.
“Our citizens want to know what to do before our police get there,” said Lt. Brett Hibbs with the Jacksonville Police Department. “The whole thing is geared toward saving lives.”
According to CRASE training materials, an active shooter is an individual actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a confined and populated area, and in most cases, there is no pattern or method to an active shooter’s selection of victims.
The free four-hour CRASE class presents information on go-to methods in case of an active shooter and helps those receiving the training develop a plan for their workplace or school. Hibbs said the training helps civilians protect themselves and fight back as much as possible until the police arrive, which, on average, takes three minutes.
“A lot can happen in that three minutes before the police get there,” he said. “This training is to tell citizens what they can do to minimize the death and injury that’s occurring before we get there.”
The Police Department will present the course to any business that requests it. Though the class typically lasts four hours, the department can hold the course in two hours, depending on how much time the business that requested the course has.
“We’ve held them here at the Police Department, and we’ll go to doctor’s offices, schools, anything health related,” he said, adding that the department likes to hold trainings at the business’s location so that employees or students can better build an exit plan.
CRASE training teaches civilians the ADD method: avoid, deny, defend.
“If you’re stuck inside the situation, avoid it by trying to get out,” Hibbs said. “If you have a way to get out, and if the shooting is occurring at the other end of the building, then go the other direction and get out. If you can’t get out because the shooter is too close and it’s too risky, deny entry by barricading doors, locks, going out a window. There’s a lot of things you can do to deny entry.”
Hibbs said denying entry can also include turning the lights off, locking the door and making the room appear unoccupied. If possible, individuals should barricade a door with surrounding furniture, restrict the door handle from opening and hide against a wall free from the view of the door’s window. A shooter will not spend too much time attempting to enter a barricaded or seemingly empty room, he said.
“The mindset now is to teach people to defend,” he continued, noting that in recent active-shooter events, playing dead has proven unsuccessful. “If you lay down and hide or try to avoid the guy, he’s just going to come up and shoot you. If your life is on the line, you might as well fight. And you fight with everything you’ve got. That includes anything that’s anything in the room. You have chairs, you have your hands, maybe a purse. Anything that you have, you have to fight.”
Hibbs said that all at once, everyone in the room should throw books, a fire extinguisher, a coffee pot, purses, cans of food and anything else he or she can grab, at the shooter.
During trainings, those who are permitted to carry a concealed weapon sometimes inquire about their role in an active-shooter event, Hibbs said.
“Your biggest threat is another concealed-weapon holder because they don’t know who you are, and everyone wants to be the hero, including us,” Hibbs said. “If the police get there and you’ve still got your gun out, you’re a threat to us, and we’re going to find out what you are. Your best thing to do once you find out police are there is to put that gun up.”
Sgt. James Brady said police officers are trained in a form of medical care and that individuals should learn how to care for themselves and others.
“Just because you’re shot or just because you’re stabbed doesn’t mean you’re going to die,” he said. “A high percentage of people live through those types of events.”
Holding trainings at different locations requires various approaches, Hibbs said, because a school may already have a procedure in place, whereas a workplace may not. Plus, he noted, at hospitals, nurses can’t necessarily leave a patient’s side.
“There are different problems for everybody,” he said. “A school of kindergartners is different than 12th-graders who are football players who can fight back.”
Hibbs said there once used to be a profile for an active shooter. “There is no profile anymore,” he said. “It used to be thought of as things that happen in schools. It’s gotten to where it’s anywhere; it can happen anywhere.”
Hibbs said many civilians might deny that a shooting is taking place once gunshots are heard in a building, which will then delay their avoid, deny and defend response to the shooting.
“It’s a mindset issue, and if you deny it, your chances of surviving go down,” he said. “If you’re inside a restaurant that catches on fire, a lot of people will sit around and see the flames and take their time in getting out. As soon as you see smoke, you should be figuring out where you’re going to go out.”
Hibbs suggested being familiar with all exits, including emergency exits, of large retail stores and frequently visited places.
“There is a big interest in learning what to do,” he said. “I don’t know that it’s fear-based, but there’s a lot of concern.”
Hibbs suggested that Arkansans reach out to their local police departments about scheduling a CRASE training.
“Everywhere you go, have a plan,” he said. “Think about things ahead of time, have a plan, and know what you’re going to do as soon as something happens so you don’t spend a lot of time trying to think about what you’re going to do. Our other biggest takeaway is change your mindset, and know that it can happen anywhere to anybody. A lot of people live in denial. It could happen to anybody at any place.”
Staff writer Syd Hayman can be reached at (501) 244-4307 or shayman@arkansasonline.com.