Active shooters are a real threat that police officers train to confront. Active shooter incidents have gone down at shopping malls, office buildings, and other locations, but one of the more frequent locations is at a school.
Many police departments have trained in, or at least familiarized their officers with, the schools in their jurisdictions. This is invaluable experience; the first time you set foot inside the school better not be when bullets are flying.
Even though schools generally cooperate with law enforcement by allowing them access for training, are we really working with the schools to achieve the best possible response to the unthinkable act of someone killing our children? Locked doors are one example of what we may be missing if we are not working closely together with the schools.
The first thing a school does if trouble erupts is to go into “lockdown.” Not terribly different from a lockdown at a jail, students are hustled into their classrooms, and the doors are locked. The idea is to isolate the children from the problem. In this case, the active shooter.
There are two problems with the lockdown. First, it hampers the ability of the victims to escape if trouble finds them anyway. Secondly, a lockdown hampers the ability of law enforcement to respond to the incident. I won’t argue the pros and cons of isolating innocents in a locked classroom, which creates the first problem.
The second issue resulting from a lockdown is something that many officers have not trained for. If three officers show up, form a contact team, but can’t get in through a locked door, what good are they? And before you say “break out a window and crawl through,” how many of your schools use wire-reinforced glass to prevent someone from doing just that?
Patrol officers need to have some tools available to make entry through locked doors: both exterior and interior. Additionally, the officers need to know how to use them. A Halligan tool is great, but if you don’t know how to use it, what good is it?
Lastly, officers engaged in active shooter scenarios need to encounter locked doors, so they can train how to work them. Because, God forbid, if they need to go after an active shooter in real life, they will encounter some locked doors.
Stay safe!
About Richard
Richard is the publisher of BlueSheepdog.com. In addition to writing here, he publishes GunsHolstersAndGear.com and is a regular contributor to places like Human Events, Police & Security News and The Firearm Blog.
You make some great points about school lockdowns and officer response. We have a problem on our campus that is very hazardous to the officers involved in the search for an active shooter – the vast majority of the classroom doors open outward. This is an extremely dangerous situation for us in it both gives notice to the bad guy who may be hiding inside the room that the police have arrived, and it puts us at a momentary tactical disadvantage.
Unfortunately we can not convince the administrators of the campus to change things. Money is the basic issue; replacing all of those doors is going to be expensive and they are worried who will pay for it. Plus, despite all of the active shooting incidents in the country in the last decade or two, they cling to the outdated and very dangerous “something like that will never happen here” philosophy. This despite a tabletop exercise last summer that showed off a lot of areas where we were unprepared for an active shooter, not just the one with the doors. We did so badly on the exercise the campus president ended the discussion with “I guess we will save the ones we can and those we can’t will have to fend for themselves”. Not a very encouraging statement for someone who is supposed to be making her students a top priority.
Interesting. I train for such incidents.
Very interesting points. I will share with my Active Shooter Response Team. Thank u
The cops need to have master keys or slide cards to enable them to enter any doors that may be locked.
Fire is statistically (and realistically) a greater risk (mass casualty) to the occupants than are active shooters. Exit doors and door locks must meet fire protection/life safety code requirements for means of egress from the room / structure. Most of these code and life safety requirements are the result of tragedies that caused the deaths or serious injuries of many people.
The State Fire Marshal is the authority having jurisdiction (AHJ) / approving authority for exit doors and associated locks. Governing requirements are in State and local fire codes, and the latest edition of the NFPA (Fire) 101B Code for Means of Egress for Buildings and Structures. For example, exit doors shall swing in the direction of exit travel when serving: assembly areas, relatively large occupant loads (e.g., 50 or more), or hazardous area (e.g., school laboratory). The AHJ might approve the use of double acting (swinging) doors as an alternative to outward opening doors. Exit doors shall be openable from the direction of exit travel without the use of a key or any special knowledge or effort whenever the building is occupied. Its probably wise to avoid the use of chains and padlocks as a means to secure exit doors of unoccupied buildings, as their easy availability would be useful to an active shooter.