Lessons Learned from Active Shooter Incident

March 18, 2014

Source: EMR-ISAC

Several officials and civil servants appeared before the Connecticut governor's Sandy Hook Advisory Commission to describe what could be done better in the future should another school shooting occur. Four points were mentioned as being items of concern or areas for improvement:

• With only three dispatchers staffing the local PSAP, they were quickly overwhelmed by the volume of calls;
• Parents and media converged on the scene, making it difficult for responders to do their jobs;
• Too many ambulances arrived with too little resource management;
• Donations poured in, but no mechanism was identified to handle the funds at first; questionable groups appeared, prompting a fraud watch from the state.

Newtown has had over a year to look back at their multi-agency response, identify these issues, and begin to address them. Other towns and cities should review their own response plans and determine how these problems may play out in their own jurisdictions, or conduct extensive and realistic drills to identify other gaps in plans and training.

Learn more in this article from FireRescue1.com.