Effective Strategies for Interdisciplinary Training of Responders to Active Violence:

Workshop Overview

An effective response to active violence will be interdisciplinary and will likely be made by units from various agencies. The response can involve not only law enforcement and EMS, but fire-rescue, hazardous materials, bomb technicians, special response units, mobile command, emergency management, and others. Accordingly, the preparedness and training necessary for this level of response must be interdisciplinary.

Effective training should extend beyond the classroom and “tabletop” exercise room, to performance-based training that includes high-level problem solving, and consequence response activities. Successful training at this level certainly is challenging. Although the overall mission of the collective public safety and emergency responder agencies is arguably the same – “Stopping the Killing and Stopping the Dying,” the approaches, tactics, and procedures needed by the various disciplines involved varies.

The training should not only focus on the specific skill sets and tactics of each discipline, but it must also include the “blending of the differences” into an overall effective package .

Examples of topics covered include:

• Problem-based/consequence-driven training, a step beyond typical reality-based approaches
• Effective role player involvement
• Force-on-force training –“ sims or blanks”: pros and cons for each
• SWAT and bomb technicians need to be included: strategies and tactics to minimize the downtime they typically cause for other disciplines trainingy
• Safety, sim-cells, and activity coordination
• Key aspects of NFPA 3000 and its relationship to training
• Using special effects and props
• Problem-based/consequence-driven training and higher

Workshops are typically delivered over one day
Class size: limited to ~30 with minimal enrollments required for workshop delivery