Officers train for shooting situations with county emergency team
CRANBERRY TWP — More than 40 police officers from 15 agencies and departments across the county participated in an active shooter training program Wednesday at a building in Cranberry Township.
Hosted by the Butler County Emergency Services Unit (ESU), which is a squad composed of county officers who respond to high-risk incidents, the training session shared scenarios and instruction on protocol for school shootings or other active shooter situations.
“We try to give our training back to the patrolmen,” said Kevin Mikulan, sergeant with Zelienople Police and ESU tactical commander. “Our intent is to do this every year as a team.”
The training gave officers from different departments a chance to work together as they would in an actual active shooter situation.
“When there is an emergency, or you are in a stressful situation, you immediately fall back to your training,” said Ed Lenz, commander of the ESU and a sergeant with Adams Township Police. “If you’ve not trained to do it, you’re more likely to not know what to do or to freeze. By doing the training, they can immediately fall back on their training. They know what to do.”
Emergency skills
Training started with a sit-down teaching lesson and moved into tactics for hallway movement, room entry and clearing, and forcible entry, Lenz explained. The second half of the day was more scenario-based, in which officers put their training together in a simulated situation.
A key part of the training, Lenz said, is the speed at which officers respond.
“Our role is never to wait. We are not as important as a hostage or an innocent or somebody that’s injured,” he said. “We just like to stress that, when there’s a bad guy doing bad-guy things, we have to make sure we get in there and don’t want any delay in doing so.”
The officers also learned field medical skills in case they or one of their squad members are injured in an active shooter situation.
“I’m also a paramedic, and what we do here is self-aid and buddy aid, in case a police officer were to get injured over the course of an active shooter scenario,” said Denny Crawford of the Penn Township Police Department, who is deputy commander with the Butler ESU. “It’s things that we have learned over the past years, and it’s just a refresher for everyone, using that simple medicine in a complex situation.”
Medical protocols in emergency situations such as these have evolved over time, Lenz added.
“The combat medicine that comes back is all field-tested by the military, that being tourniquets and combat gauze and chest seals,” Lenz said.
The prevalence of active shooting situations across the nation has emphasized to officers the importance of keeping up on training, Mikulan said.
“We’re at a point now where there’s a weekly reminder that we need additional training. There’s some event somewhere in the country,” he said. “We have a constantly, weekly reminder that we need to stay trained up.”
“Unfortunately, when I started my career, it was ‘that might happen,’ but it almost seems that it’s not if, it’s when in our career is this going to occur here,” Lenz added. “I think we’re all very passionate about making sure that our response is where it should be.”
In addition to the Butler County Emergency Services Unit, those participating in the training included members of the Butler County Sheriff’s Office, Butler Township Police, Butler City Police, Penn Township Police, Saxonburg Borough Police, Middlesex Township Police, Cranberry Township Police, Zelienople Borough Police, Evans City-Seven Fields Regional Police, Adams Township Police, Jackson Township Police, Prospect Borough Police, Mars Area School District Police and the Butler County Prison.
