West Point Police hold active shooter training to keep officers ready after Buffalo and Uvalde shootings
WEST POINT, Miss. (WCBI) – The West Point Police Department held active shooter training at the Central School on Monday.
How law enforcement responds to active shooter situations became part of the nationwide conversation in the wake of the Uvalde, Texas shooting.
“When…we do have to go in, they’re going to do what they have to do to save the lives of the people that are inside that building,” says Assistant Police Chief K.E. Meaders.
Assistant Chief Meaders says they specifically chose to hold their regular active shooter training after Uvalde, Buffalo and the shootings that have followed, to help reassure the public that they are ready for the worst.
“Update their training, to revise their training, just to make sure that we have a plan when something does happen,” he says.
The training is a review of the officers’ responsibilities from the time they first respond to the scene until the shooting incident is over.
“Once we get there and we hear that shots have been fired, then we have to go (inside),” Assistant Chief Meaders says.
“We will stop them before they go into the incident and we’ll make sure that they tell us where they’re at,” says Amory Police Officer Brian Brown, one of the training officers. “What do they need? Are they making the entry? ‘Where am I going? What room am I going to be in?'”
Monday afternoon’s training featured drills on moving safely down hallways, how to clear and check classrooms as well as how to properly enter a room.
“We have the tools that we need in order to get into a (sealed) door and if all else fails, you know we can use that vehicle using a random technique to get into a door.”
Around 15 officers participated in the training, which also featured a classroom portion on medical response and breathing techniques to handle the high-pressure situation.
“I’ve tried my best to recreate combat stress and you just can’t do it,” Brown says. “This is as close as it gets.”
The training will continue Tuesday when they will run mock shooting scenarios with paint guns.
