Page 14 - Campus Security & Life Safety, May/June 2021

CoverStory
Reducing Response Time
Active shooter incidents on campus where you can play a vital role in gunshot detection
Some of the greatest challenges to cam- pus security include the monitoring of multiple buildings and gathering areas, coupled with tracking the fre- quent comings and goings of students, staff and visitors through many open access points throughout the campus. When you add an active shooter incident into the mix, know- ing exactly where the incident is happening in real time is critical, so first responders can rapidly mitigate the threat and building occu- pants can quickly get to safety.
Putting it into Practice
While this concept is well understood, put- ting it into practice is another story. If you are a member of campus police or a student on campus and you are in Building C and an active shooter starts firing in Building A, how do you know? When do you know? Who notifies 911 and how long does it take? How does that information get to you? Just as important, is it accurate?
In reaction to the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007, where an active shooter managed to go undetected for two and a half hours after his first two shots were fired in a dormitory and later shot 47 people he locked inside an academic hall (Panel, 2007), colleges and universities began implementing more robust mass notification systems.
Emergency kiosks, panic buttons, and “blue light boxes” became more widely deployed. These types of systems have greatly improved emergency communications on campuses, however they still require some form of human element to set them off, such as a student who presses the panic button or a security dispatcher who must compose and send the mass notification message.
With these systems in place, where does this leave 911? One of the earliest and most com- prehensive studies on active shooter incidents was a 2012 Naval postgraduate school study which found that relying on 911 notification is an inadequate strategy to reduce response time in an active shooting incident, and that instead, a “Victim Initiated Mitigation System” is the most effective means of reducing casualties.
The Department of Homeland Security adopted this model in their How to Respond active shooter booklets and what became the training commonly referred to as “Run, Hide, Fight.” These findings and practices mean that you, an innocent bystander, could be law enforcement’s best option during those first few seconds of shooting, because they are still waiting for someone to call 911 before they even know to respond.
While 911 and mass notification systems
remain viable, well established solutions for campuses, the addition of gunshot detection can supplement these systems by filling in critical missing gaps and improving the flow of information during an active shooter inci- dent. The premise behind gunshot detection is that it will alert campus police faster than any current method. Providing vital location information, including where in the building the incident is happening, cuts through typi- cal alert delays so more immediate response
14 campuslifesecurity.com | MAY/JUNE 2021