School Security, Church Security and Active Shooter Response Part 1: An Integrated Approach

The Special Tactics staff offers our prayers for the victims of the tragic school massacre in Uvalde, Texas and for the families who lost loved ones. Unfortunately, it seems clear that we have not seen the end of this rising trend of violent attacks. We want to do everything we can to help prevent future killings or at the very least reduce their number. Several years ago we published a 4-part article series (on our old website) covering Tactical School/Church Security and Active Shooter Response. We are re-publishing that article series here starting with the first part on an “Integrated Approach” to security. We believe there are simple, commonsense measures that every individual, school, church and community can take to dramatically reduce the likelihood of deadly attacks and reduce the number of casualties should an attack take place. This 4-part article begins to outline our approach to the problem and we plan to release a School Active Shooter Response book and also a Church Active Shooter Response book next month.

An Integrated Approach to School Active Shooter Response and Church Security

What mission could be more important than protecting America’s children at the schools where they go to learn each day. Equally important is protecting our places of worship where families and communities come together to strengthen their faith and moral values. These two missions are very similar in nature and both critically important to the continued growth of our nation and way of life. However, as far as we know, no one has come up with a comprehensive solution for how to accomplish this mission. The following 4-part article offers simple suggestions that can help get us closer to a solution, or at least improve our chances of success in the worst-case scenario. Also, while this article references “school defense,” these same principles can apply to church defense, or any other community entity.

The reason the article is divided into four parts is because we believe effective school defense demands the careful and effective integration of three different elements: 1) local law enforcement, 2) on-site school guards, 3) auxiliary guards and designated armed citizens. Therefore, this first part of the article provides a general overview of these three elements and the importance of their integration. Then, the remaining three parts of the article discuss the training, planning and employment for each separate element in succession.

The reason why it is essential to integrate of various security elements into a wider school defense strategy is simple: lack of manpower and resources. In a world with unlimited resources, school security is an easy problem to solve. Simply assign multiple teams of highly-trained law enforcement and security personnel to protect each school. However, this solution is most likely not feasible at the moment. Therefore, the challenge becomes how to take advantage of as many security resources and assets as possible to offset the manpower deficiency. However, as with any military or security operation where multiple elements need to cooperate, the situation can rapidly deteriorate without effective coordination and plans for integration.

The first step in developing a plan or strategy for school defense is for every school to immediately implement at least a hasty or tentative plan for dealing with a deadly attack, then establish a schedule for rehearsing that plan on a consistent basis. This will provide a temporary solution and buy time to develop a larger, more comprehensive strategy.

Once a tentative plan and reaction drill is in place, the next step is to look for all the potential security assets and resources that might be massed against the threat. If possible, schools should employ at least one armed guard and integrate that guard into the existing emergency response plan and rehearsals. The key point is that once the guard is incorporated, the drill should look less like a “fire drill” and more like a tactical exercise where the guard will have to find and neutralize the simulated attacker while innocents escape according to the evacuation plan.

There might also be untapped security assets that could be of help in a crisis such as school staff who have firearms training, are licensed to carry concealed weapons or are former law enforcement or military personnel. There might also be parents or other citizens with experience and training who are willing to volunteer to augment security. This “auxiliary security force” could provide critical manpower in a crisis. All members of the auxiliary also do not necessarily need to be armed. The auxiliary might include people with medical training or simply strong, athletic people who can help evacuate casualties. However, these auxiliary forces must be identified, vetted and then incorporated into the drills along with the armed guards, ensuring they are able to provide safe and effective support.

The final element is the official law enforcement officers and first responders who are responsible for the area where the school is located. These authorities must be kept in the loop throughout the entire process just described. Ultimately, while the development and implementation of the various plans can be decentralized, law enforcement authorities must remain in overall ”command” of the process and are responsible for ensuring the various elements fit into a wider plan that ends in the arrival of law enforcement personnel, securing of the scene and evacuation of wounded. If possible, it would be ideal to have at least one law enforcement liaison attend each emergency drill and remain in frequent communication with school guards and auxiliary team members.

The message of the first part of this four-part article is extremely simple: When faced with limited resources, the critical point is to take advantage of all potential security assets and ensure they are properly integrated into a coherent plan. However, as obvious as this point may be, there are still many schools and communities that have failed to implement this integrated approach. So, discussion of the importance of integration is a useful point of departure for exploring the problem of school defense. The next part in this article will discuss the selection, training and employment of on-site armed guards and their integration into a deadly-attack evacuation drill.

We recently released our new “Active Threat Survival Essentials” course on our partnered learning platform the Iron Survival Network. The course features interactive video lessons using footage of real-world attacks and teaches the most critical concepts and techniques for surviving a deadly encounter. Click below to learn more.