If an active shooter is inside a school building, it may be up to a single School Resource Officer (SRO) to mitigate the threat until more police can arrive. SROs from across the region participated in a full day of Active Shooter Threat Training on Tuesday to learn how to best balance a quick response with safe practices if a dangerous situation arises.
The training was led by the Daviess County Sheriff’s Office and was hosted inside the former Daviess County Middle School building. SROs from Union County, Morganfield, Ohio County, Hancock County, Daviess County Public Schools Police Department, Owensboro Police Department, and Dawson Springs participated.
“To my knowledge, this is the first type of training of this nature geared specifically towards SROs,” Sheriff Brad Youngman said. “DCSO took the lead because we have a heavy focus on Active Shooter Threat (AST) Training, and we have federally certified ASTR instructors on our staff.”
Jared Ramsey, Administrative Division Commander for DCSO, is also one such instructor, so he oversaw the training.
“There is not a more noble job than protecting our children,” Ramsey said. “The SROs in our schools are our first line of defense. It’s imperative that we provide them with the equipment and training to get the job done and make sure everyone is safe.”
Both Youngman and Ramsey said training is constantly evolving.
“We strive to provide our deputies with the most current cutting-edge practices available,” Ramsey said. “Every training course we attend gives us more tools for the toolbox. Even though we hope and pray we never need to use the skills we hone, we want to be as prepared as possible if that day comes.”
Youngman said the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center where DCSO officers took AST Instructor Course sends a team to each community that has been stricken by these tragic events to study what happened, how the response went, and what can be improved upon.
Tuesday’s training is focused on solo officer AST response, meaning they had to rely solely on their own observances and skills to respond to the staged threat.
“It is ideal for SROs because they usually are alone and may already be on the scene if a school shooting were to occur,” Youngman said. “It’s different when you are sent to a shooting as part of the response vs. already being there when it begins. I wanted to host this training for area SROs bc we are about to begin a new school year and these are skills that we need to share with our partner agencies.”
Youngman said a single day of training can make a difference.
“When you look at some school shootings where SROs didn’t go in when they arrived, I consider that completely unforgivable,” he said. “So we train every DCSO deputy, and now several of our area SROs, on what to do and how to do it right.”
Ramsey added, “The ultimate goal is to live in a society where we do not need SROs. Until then DCSO will do everything in our power to protect not only the citizens we serve but those in our surrounding communities. We may all wear different badges and patches but we all have the same goal.”
