Lessons Learned from False Reports of Active Shooters
Guest post from Ray Salazar from our Business Continuity Department.
Today I want to talk about some recent lessons learned on the need for emergency and crisis planning.
With the rise of reported active shooters, it is no surprise the initial thought going through most people’s head when they hear gun shots is “active shooter.” A case in point is when chaos broke out at New York City’s JFK Airport on August 14th when terminal passengers suddenly began to hear noises and false stories that the noise was
suspected gun fire. As the rumor spread, hordes of people began running and screaming, fearing that an active shooter was on the loose. In the end, it was sheer panic and fear as there was no shooter. (Fortunately there were no reported injuries either.)
It should be noted that this is a major international airport, and yet it seems that there was a distinct lack of response planning for a suspected active shooter. The New York Times reported that security officials from a multitude of agencies seemed confused about the security protocols, chain of command, notification and communication.
Get Chris Green’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
Invictus wants our clients to have two basic takeaways from this incident. The first is the need for planning, and the second is the need for training. When you plan and train for the worst and have to respond — even if it’s a false report — you will be ready. Planning and training can also lessen the negative consequences of a false report, especially if complaints of confusion and/or personal injuries occur stemming from a lack of planning and/or training.
So ask yourself, if a rumored active shooter can create widespread panic, can your plan adjust to the above scenario? And if not, then how will you respond to the real threat? It is leadership that is obligated to protect life and the reputation of the company. Will your emergency management program be tarnished for not being ready to safeguard human life? Let Invictus partner with your teams and get you “planning and training” solutions to this ever present danger.
For our K-12 schools:
We know there are numerous identifiable soft targets in our country but the most vulnerable soft targets with unimaginable devastating impact is to our educational institutions. At Invictus we want to partner with our education leaders and provide the awareness, planning, and training activities to plan for the active shooter and how to respond to the phases of an attack.
At Invictus, our experts know the importance to identify a problem before it becomes life threatening. Is your team trained in: 1) gathering proactive intelligence by using situational awareness to observe pre-attack indicators, 2) behavioral threat assessment, and 3) identifying behavioral cues?
Our passion is to protect life, let us help with your passion too!
