Police and EMTs try a new tactic for active shootings

Police departments and rescue agencies in Cache Valley are working together by trying a new tactic that could save more lives during a mass shooting on-campus.

“Things have changed after Columbine,” said Kent Harris, the captain of the Utah State University Police Department.

Harris referred to the 1999 Columbine High School shooting in Littleton, Colorado, where 12 students and one teacher were killed.

“Back then the police would set up a perimeter and wait for the SWAT teams to come in and clear the building,” said Steve Milne, the interim chief of police of North Park Police Department. “In Columbine, that took many hours.”

Police are now dividing up into two teams. The first set of policemen are called “contacts” and they focus on neutralizing the active shooter threat The second set of responders is called the Rescue Task Force, which consists of a SWAT team protecting a group of EMTs while they are treating wounded people.

“It used to be that the contacts would be passing by all these people who are wounded, dying and bleeding to death,” Milne said.

Harris said this new tactic is an improvement because the police do not have to wait for a SWAT team to clear the entire building before the EMTs can treat people.

“We want to put the odds in our favor, this is one of the ways of doing that,” Milne said.

Cache Valley police and rescue agencies will keep practicing the new active shooter tactic and other emergency drills in the vacant Valley View Tower dorms on campus.

– diego.mendiola.93@gmail.com