Columbine, Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook and Parkland are just a few of the places where an active shooter has needlessly massacred adults and children in the past 20 years.
“We’ve had a couple high-profile incidents, but really these have been going on for a long, long time, decades. Even the larger scale incidents post-Columbine, these have been part of our reality,” operations bureau commander Maj. T.J. Geary said. “Virginia Tech hit home for a lot of universities because it was a university setting and a large victim count.”
Geary has spent the last 10 years training civilians and law enforcement officers how to respond to an active killer situation through USCPD. On Wednesday, a room in Thomas Cooper Library in the Center for Teaching Excellence filled with faculty and staff eager to hear how they can be better prepared and possibly prevent another school shooting.
“I think preparedness is key whether it’s for a fire or a weather emergency. I mean if you can prepare them here, your odds of survival are gonna be much better ... you’re less likely to go into shut down mode,” Geary said. “Education preparedness is just a good way to ensure that you’re better off if a bad situation occurs.”
More than 40 people registered for Community Response to an Active Killer: Prevention, Mitigation, and Survival. Professors asked questions in order to find the best way to protect themselves and their students.
“I wanted a plan and protocol for how to respond in accordance with the plans of the entire university if something were to happen in my area while I was in my classroom or while I'm on campus,” Kathy Pettit, an adjunct journalism instructor, said.
There is a difference between the terms “active killer” and “active shooter.” An active shooter may only be using a gun, but an active killer may have multiple weapons. Geary's training is meant to handle any weapon. Alongside the type of attacker and weapon present, the goal of an active killer was discussed.
“The intent is to continuously harm others,” Geary said. “They’re not there to rape people. They’re not there to rob people. There’s no motive for financial gain. They’re there to take as many lives as they can.”
Geary explained the concept of the Stopwatch of Death, which states that once the active killer begins to kill, there will be a new victim every 15 seconds. The average response time for USCPD is two minutes. That leaves time for eight victims before an officer can take control of the situation.
Attention was drawn to USC’s Behavioral Intervention Team which allows parents, faculty, staff and students to report any concern with another student. BIT receives notifications about everything from an eating disorder to suicide to a potential safety hazard to those around them. This was part of the presentation’s aim to prevent someone from becoming an active killer in the first place by getting that person help.
“These don’t have to be somebody’s a threat to the community. Somebody may be a threat to themselves,” Geary said. “We would rather get a thousand calls that turn out to be nothing than not get the one that turns out to be something.”
Three simple steps Geary informed of was ADD — avoid suspect and incident, deny suspect entry and defend yourself using whatever you have access to. This and his Recipe for Defense gave attendees a basis for how to respond.
“One of the easiest things to do would be to have something in my pocketbook that is a tourniquet and a weapon of opportunity. That’s easy,” Pettit said. “You just put there and never think about it. That’s a nice take away.”
Geary will continue to teach everyone who is interested how to respond to an active killer situation. The next faculty and staff workshop will be held on April 18. Alongside their professors being trained in this type of response, Geary encourages students to take charge of their own personal safety.
“It seems like every time there’s an incident you have people lined up around the street … all waiting to say the same thing,” Geary said. “I never thought it would happen here. That self doubt — that denial — is deadly.”