In order to participate in the GunBroker Member forums, you must be logged in with your GunBroker.com account. Click the sign-in button at the top right of the forums page to get connected.
Police response to shooting
capgun
Member Posts: 1,848 ✭
Should police quickly go to the scene to aid possibly injured people in a shooting scenario or wait to protect themselves from danger? In this case it took officers 7 hours to enter the scene of a shooting and check for injured people. Officer safety was the primary concern. Maybe that was the smart thing to do keep officers from being injured, but that's a long time to let possibly dying gunshot victims to wait for aid. http://www.davisenterprise.com/local-news/crime-fire-courts/motive-for-murder-suicide-remains-a-mystery/
Comments
Patrol used to respond to scene and go into scene until resistance is met. If active shooter is still present it is on-scene commander call. Generally at that time patrol secures perimeter, briefs SWAT and SWAT goes in when they are ready. That can lead to the extended times for police to enter.
I have been present during both type of incidents. It all depends on the facts of the incident, and who is the on-scene commander.
Margaret Thatcher
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."
Mark Twain
Police procedure vary according to type of incident.
Patrol used to respond to scene and go into scene until resistance is met. If active shooter is still present it is on-scene commander call. Generally at that time patrol secures perimeter, briefs SWAT and SWAT goes in when they are ready. That can lead to the extended times for police to enter.
I have been present during both type of incidents. It all depends on the facts of the incident, and who is the on-scene commander.
Post Columbine that thinking has changed. It now has become standard procedure for the first responding officers to confront the threat and aid the injured, and not to sit back and wait extended periods of time to allow the shooter to injure more people or the injured to die.
Both my boys were at Granite Hills during that shooting. Shooter was down within a few minutes as there was police presence at the school, after Santana High School shooting.
The aftermath was a cluster. But I went in and got my boys out and back home.
Margaret Thatcher
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."
Mark Twain
quote:Originally posted by Alpine
Police procedure vary according to type of incident.
Patrol used to respond to scene and go into scene until resistance is met. If active shooter is still present it is on-scene commander call. Generally at that time patrol secures perimeter, briefs SWAT and SWAT goes in when they are ready. That can lead to the extended times for police to enter.
I have been present during both type of incidents. It all depends on the facts of the incident, and who is the on-scene commander.
Post Columbine that thinking has changed. It now has become standard procedure for the first responding officers to confront the threat and aid the injured, and not to sit back and wait extended periods of time to allow the shooter to injure more people or the injured to die.
First responding officers make entry when it is an active shooter, with active signs of violence, this situation was not the case. When officers initially arrived and didn't not hear any type of disturbance, or active violence then it appears this was handled as a barricaded subject, not an active shooter.
I agree though that seven hours is quite a long time, especially with no signs of activity or contact with the perpetrator. It is going to take some time to get SWAT on scene with cameras and such to gain intelligence on the residence and circumstances inside.
Post Columbine that thinking has changed. It now has become standard procedure for the first responding officers to confront the threat and aid the injured, and not to sit back and wait extended periods of time to allow the shooter to injure more people or the injured to die.
Response policies for active shooters have changed dramatically in the aftermath of Columbine, but this was clearly not the situation here.
Someone calmly calling in and reporting people killed inside a residence, then the arriving officers finding nothing to indicate this and the caller not there waiting (as they stated) doesn't reasonably justify rushing in and knocking down the door.
That's the sort of thinking that leads to people 'swatting' others as a prank. [;)]
quote:Originally posted by capgun
Post Columbine that thinking has changed. It now has become standard procedure for the first responding officers to confront the threat and aid the injured, and not to sit back and wait extended periods of time to allow the shooter to injure more people or the injured to die.
Response policies for active shooters have changed dramatically in the aftermath of Columbine, but this was clearly not the situation here.
Someone calmly calling in and reporting people killed inside a residence, then the arriving officers finding nothing to indicate this and the caller not there waiting (as they stated) doesn't reasonably justify rushing in and knocking down the door.
That's the sort of thinking that leads to people 'swatting' others as a prank. [;)]
yeah man we on the same page [8D]
I agree time should be taken to secure the area and obtain intelligence. "Active shooter" can have several interpretations. What if there were shots fired at a school and a report of people injured, but when the first officers arrived there were no more shots heard. Do you wait hours to make contact for officer safety because the shooter is not "active" at that time? When you do not have communication or visual you do not have a barricaded subject, just a shooting scene with possibly injured people. With a report of shots fired and injured people at the scene, 7 hours is a long time to get assistance to people who may be injured and dying.
In the school scenario you're using entry would immediately be made by those first arriving, same as with any other public place.
Generally speaking, even with private property immediate entry is made where indications are that injured persons info supplied by the caller is correct.
When dealing with non-public places the key question that must be answered on a case by case basis is whether your immediate entry is a reasonable intrusion based upon what's known at the time.