The Levelland Police Department held an active shooter training course this past week at the Levelland Intermediate School with their newest officer and new South Plains College officers.
During the recent state legislative update, all law enforcement agencies were required 16 hours of active shooter training for officers. In turn, the LPD is sending all of their officers to complete the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training which has now joined South Plains College at the Reese Campus.
While the next training is not scheduled until May for ALERRT, the LPD put together an eighthour training module that utilized reality based “force on force” and ALERRT Level One training methods that is geared toward active shooter response.
“We wanted to put together a form of training that these new officers can fall back on if the need arises until they can complete their ALERRT training,” said LPD Captain Mateo Lopez. “The training consisted of basic practices to respond to an active shooter incident, approaching the attack side, the concept of building entry, team movements and the action that will be taken place as far as distracting and neutralizing an active shooter.”
LPD Sergeant John Corrasco who is a ALERRT Level One Train to Trainer and a Reality Based Force on Force Trainer was assisted by Officer Blake Parker and Emilio Miranda who are both ALERRT Level One Train to Trainers.
“We combined the instruction amongst those three to do a reality based training scenario,” said Lopez. “The goal was to give those officers who attended a small intro and foundation of what to expect for when they attend their training.”
Lopez offered his thanks to Levelland ISD and Superintendent Becky McCutchen for allowing the officers to utilize the campus and also South Plains College Law Enforcement Academy and Kenny Burns for provided the equipment needed for the training.
“None of this training would have been possible without them for allowing us to provide the training,” said Lopez.
Moving forward, Lopez and the department plan to put together more reality based training programs in the future.
“Chief Albert Garcia is a big advocate for getting everyone within the department to attend various training classes,” explained Lopez. “We have a lot of personnel who have gone through numerous training programs and have the experience to offer training classes themselves.”
Once all the officers within the department have received their ALERRT Level One training, the plan is to offer additional training classes as in-service training as updates are being provided from ALERRT and officers continue to join the department.
Currently, 14 courses make up the ALERRT catalog: Active Attack Integrated Response (AAIR); AAIR Train-the-Trainer; Basic Active Shooter Response Level (“Stop the Killing”); Level 1 Train-the-Trainer First Responder Medical Train-the-Trainer (“Stop the Dying”) First Responder Breaching; Breaching Train-the-Trainer; Low Light Train-the-Trainer; Exterior Response to Active Shooter Events (ERASE); ERASE Train-the-Trainer; SolOfficer Rapid Deployment (SORD); Civilian Response to Active Shooter Events (CRASE) Train-the-Trainer; and Active Shooter Incident Management (ASIM).
More than 146,000 first responders have been trained in ALERRT operations and tactics to respond to active attack situations. The training is delivered by first responders with experience in active attack response and police training.