With the concepts I have summarized, the active marketing of active shooter courses and training has now become very competitive. Now the public and private sectors are using different catch phrases to create and market their active shooter training materials. This approach can cause confusion.
Contributing to the confusion is the poster campaign concept. These materials are placed in the workplace and hallways. Created by a coalition of public agencies (U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the National Tactical Officers Association, the Fairfax County, Va. Police, National Retail Foundation, and the Retail Industry Leaders Association – RILA), the poster training concept adds yet another theme: view the poster.
The poster created in an October 2008 campaign coalition uses an entirely different description from RUN.HIDE.FIGHT, A-L-I-C-E, the Shots Fired On Campus training video and like courses. The poster created and housed under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security online library emphasizes a fifth option: take action.
The question I have is why would a federal agency create different versions of the same message? DHS already sponsored the RUN.HIDE.FIGHT concept in the widely publicized Houston Homeland Security Active Shooter campaign, yet has a created a completely different campaign that is not well recognized nationally.
This concept may be familiar on the East Coast, but I was not aware of the concept on the West Coast. If one were to type in the search terms “active shooter,” “what to do when there’s an active shooter” and “active shooter training,” one is presented with myriad choices, concepts and practices, each telling the public to use various techniques that are either passive (do nothing) to use aggression as a first or last option (RUN.HIDE.FIGHT).
What is needed is a universal and national campaign sponsored by the major law enforcement associations; the International Police Chief’s Association, International Association of Campus law Enforcement Administrators (IACLEA), the DHS), FEMA, U.S. Justice Department, and International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM), the U.S. Department of Education, the newly established National Center for Campus Safety, and the private sector in coming to a mutual agreement or consensus on a broad, common, single standard that is taught uniformly across the country.
Active shooter training is controversial enough without injecting conflicting standards, differing terminology, a combination of defensive actions, and other concepts that could easily confuse the public, students, faculty and staff in dealing with an active shooter scenario.
A universal concept, mutually agreed to and combined with consistent training methods can save lives, and should be part of a national, coordinated emergency action planning process.
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Note: The views expressed by guest bloggers and contributors are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, Campus Safety magazine.
