Crime & Safety

Police Stage Shooter Response Training at School

Croton, Ossining and county police spent the week at Brookside School practicing scenarios and tactics to deal with someone shooting a gun in a busy place.

An active shooter is in your elementary school. What do you do? That question drove the Ossining Police, The Croton Police and the Westchester County Department of Public Safety in a week of training March 25-29.

They staged the drills at Brookside. With students on spring break, SWAT Team trucks, police cars and Emergency Rescue vehicles were crowded into the circle off Ryder Road.

The exercise was not scheduled in response to any one incident—like the December massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, officials said.

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But rather part of an ongoing training cycle, this drill will test and improve our ability to work together to respond to any type of ongoing act of violence in a public setting, said Ossining police Lieutenant Dan Slater, the department's training coordinator.

"The basic scenario is when you have an active shooter situation," Slater said. "School is what tends to come into everybody's mind, but there are others."

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"It could be any crowded place: a mall, movie theater, post office," said Sgt. John Barirde of the Croton police. 

About 80 officers, including the two village forces and members of the Westchester County Police, which patrols the unincorporated section of the town of Ossining, did the training over the course of the week, in conjunction with the Ossining school district. 

The instructors and trainees used the whole building, with its three wings, half-basement, corridors and corners, large and small spaces.

Utilizing nationally certified trainers and state of the art force on force training equipment, this drill was designed to improve an already existing close working relationship between local police departments and their school systems, Slater said.

It was designed to hone a specific set of personal and team skills—skills that all have to be coordinated quickly under pressure.

"Interagency coordination and communication are essential," Barirde said. 

It also allows the police to look for weak points. 

"For example, today we tested our radio communications," Slater said. "Some needs have been identified."

On Thursday, Croton Chief Anthony Tramaglini, Ossining village Police Chief Joseph Burton and Village Manager Richard Leins went by to see how the training was progressing, and were taken on a tour of the set-up.

As the last training teams finished and a group of instructors wrapped up with a quick corridor-sweep demonstration for Patch, Slater expressed thanks to the Ossining, Croton and county police agencies, the White Plains police and the Ossining school district for their assistance.


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