Greenfield Police Department officers were trained at Greenfield-Central High School this week on how to handle the threat of a shooter within a school or other large building.
GREENFIELD – While no one wants to think of the unthinkable, the Greenfield Police Department spent two days practicing active shooter drills at Greenfield-Central High School this week.
With classes resuming in less than two weeks, officers took the opportunity to use the empty school to practice for worst-case scenarios throughout the day Tuesday and Thursday.
All 42 members of the department took part.
Capt. Corey Decker led the training, which taught officers how to best work together to neutralize a threat.
With guns drawn, officers stealthily made their way down hallways, up stairwells and inside classrooms, as supervisors reminded them of best practices for watching each other’s back while searching the school.
Rather than real guns, they used molded plastic replicas and simunition guns, which are specially modified to fire plastic projectiles designed to mark targets.
Decker said the goal is to make the training as real as possible so officers can learn how to best respond in a crisis based on their experience and muscle memory.
The hallways were eerily quiet Thursday morning as the officers strategically made their way through a second story hallway, walking in pairs.
As they made their way from room to room – emulating the search for a suspected shooter – instructors followed behind, occasionally sharing input to help officers enhance their techniques.
Decker said officers practice both methodically clearing rooms and running toward gunshots, so that they’re ready for any scenario.
“If I hear gunshots I’ve got to get there as quickly as possible to stop the threat,” he said. “We cover every scenario so that officers can get into that mindset.”
Many officers in the department are parents of school-age children, said Decker – who counts himself among that group – so the school-based training hits close to home.
“At the end of the day, children are our most precious commodity. If we can’t protect them, that is an issue,” he said.
Deputy Chief Charles McMichael said this past week’s training is not only beneficial for school settings but many types of environments.
“The tactics being practiced are used frequently in many aspects of our jobs,” he said, among them being how to handle an active shooter within a large building.
“Active shooter situations (or reports) can happen anywhere,” said McMichael. “The tactics being practiced through training will help keep the officers safe, more effective and faster in responding to these types of calls in our community.”
After spending nearly 20 years in law enforcement, Decker has learned that ongoing training is essential in preparing for scary scenarios, especially given the fact that mass shootings don’t seem to be going away.
“The climate is ever-changing, but it seems to be it’s only getting worse, so it’s even more important for law enforcement to be prepared,” he said.
Decker said it takes funding and support to make that happen.
“City officials have to understand what’s at risk, that it takes money. We’ve got to have funding so we can do the training, which costs more for overtime and manpower,” he said.
“Given the climate, it only makes sense for us to become better prepared. Every single person above us shares that responsibility. ”
Decker commended the Greenfield-Central schools for allowing GPD to train inside the school, which happens about once a year.
“Anytime we can be in a real building or real environment, that’s what we would prefer. We’ve been very fortunate in working with the high school principals to make this happen,” he said.
While the high school’s hallways and classrooms were quiet on Thursday, they’ll soon fill up with hundreds of young people kicking off a brand new year of school.
“We try to make sure we always have a plan so that when something bad happens, we are able to respond effectively,” said Decker, who learned the same lesson while serving in the military.
“There is good and evil on this earth,” he said. “We have to have people (prepared) to stand up to that challenge when evil things go on.”
