Active Shooter Situations:

The recent increase in the number of school and workplace "active shooter" situations ranks among the top social concerns of our time. Certainly, for those of us in the law enforcement community there is no issue more important. Who among us hasn’t asked the question, "What if it happens at my middle school…my high school…my auto parts plant…my college or university?" A considerable amount of research has been compiled on where these violent acts occur and what type of person is committing them, but little is known about what finally triggers the shooter to act. As society struggles to identify the cause, we are charged with the responsibility of developing "an effective, controlled response", to such acts when they do occur. Those unfortunate, first responding officers to Columbine High School weren’t the only cops taken by surprise that day. All of us were certainly thinking, "we’re not prepared for this either, but we better get prepared"!

Research indicates that most of the school situations have occurred in suburban and rural communities. With the exception of one female, all shooters have been males, between the ages of 11 and 18. All school shooters have been Caucasian, except for one African-American. Most of the shooters have been loners, who had obsessive and failed relationships with females. Obviously, all had easy access to firearms. All of these individuals targeted their victims randomly, except for those situations where school resource officers were the initial targets. Most of these shooters had well-developed tactical plans which involved killing as many people as possible prior to taking their own lives. While this information may not enable us to prevent these tragedies from occurring, it has greatly assisted us in our quest to develop a plan to respond to, and neutralize, active shooter situations, when they invade our jurisdiction.

After the Columbine High School situation and throughout the summer of 1999, a group of S.W.A.T. officers from the Columbus Ohio Division of Police developed a tactical plan that can be used, universally throughout law enforcement circles to deal with these horrendous situations. This plan known as the "QUAD" (QUick Action Deployment) concept was born. Over the past two years, we have presented the copywrited NASTA QUAD Training Seminars to officers in seven states and Canada. "QUAD’ has become the preferred philosophy and tactic to be utilized when faced with a "active shooter" situation. While it involves a fundamental shift from the old "contain and wait for SWAT" philosophy, QUAD presents first responding officers with the tactics necessary to save lives, during an "active shooter" situation.

What is the primary duty of every law enforcement officer in this country? Without a doubt it is to preserve life! In one form or another it is incorporated into every officer’s oath. Simplified, we agree to put ourselves between the good guys and the bad guys, even when it’s unsafe to do so. There are no qualifiers, such as, "when it’s safe", "when we have the larger gun", or "when we have adequate back up". Therefore, we can’t permit people to seriously hurt and/or kill other people once police officers are at scene. The traditional practice of containing the situation and waiting for S.W.A.T. to respond has served us well over the past 27-30 years. It continues to be the right thing to do in most situations. However, if a suspect is seriously injuring or killing people, once officers are at scene, those officers are required to make entry and stop the suspect. We believe it is an officer’s professional, legal and moral obligation to do so. While we recognize the fact that some officers may refuse to enter into such a dangerous situation, we believe they are in the minority. Those law enforcement officers who can’t put themselves into such a situation should consider a different career path!

So, the QUAD philosophy is pretty simple. Once officers are at the scene and they determine that violence is actually, currently occurring, they enter the building with a minimum of four officers. Note: We realize that some officers have, and will continue to, enter these situations with less than four officers, but for training purposes, four is the proper number required. The QUAD tactics are very simple, as well. While I will never divulge the entire QUAD tactical plan in a widely distributed publication, I can certainly describe the beauty of its simplicity. The goal of the QUAD formation is very limited, focused and, therefore, rather simple. Their mission, and only mission, is to locate and stop the "active shooter"(s).

Remember, the "active shooter" normally has an excellent tactical plan that involves randomly shooting as many people as possible, as quickly as possible, prior to committing suicide. The only way we can minimize the number of casualties is to neutralize the shooter. If we become pre-occupied with evacuating people, treating the injured, or searching the rooms, the shooter will be left free to maximize the body count. We must encounter the shooter quickly, force the surrender decision, and then be in a position to get medical assistance to those who need it, NOW!

Unfortunately, no community is immune to the threat of an "active shooter" situation. What began as a problem restricted to middle schools and high schools has now expanded to universities and colleges nationwide. On January 30, 2001, alert photo clerks at a college in Cupertino California averted a situation that would have been more devastating than the Columbine disaster. Campus law enforcement and security personnel must be prepared to deal with this new phenomenon. Armed and unarmed tactics must be developed to offer your communities the effective controlled response that they deserve. Chief James T. McBride of Lakeland Community College Police Department in Ohio recognized this need and secured QUAD Training for his officers and officers from adjoining jurisdictions. This has become a quality of life issue for all of us. We, as police officers, need to give our citizens some of their quality of life back. We need to assure them that if their community is ever faced with this dreaded situation, we have a plan. We plan to come and save them, and/or their children, and we’re coming sooner than later. We won’t allow individuals to seriously injure or kill innocent people when police officers are at the scene. We are willing to risk our lives to stop these actions and we have trained our officers to effectively deal with these situations!

Bio: James J. Scanlon is a 23-year veteran with the Columbus, Ohio Division of Police. He has spent 9 of those years assigned to their full-time S.W.A.T. Unit. Officer Scanlon was involved in the development of the QUAD concept and the training of all officers throughout Central Ohio. Along with three partners, he formed a training company, called NASTA, acquired a trademark for QUAD, and has taken this training throughout the country. Please visit his web page, at www.nasta.ws.

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