The shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, has forced law enforcement agencies across the country to examine their policies and cultural attitudes as they relate to responding to an active shooter.
Law enforcement protocols for mass shootings have evolved over the decades since the Columbine High School massacre in April 1999, said Durango Police Chief Bob Brammer.
Brammer was an officer in Arapahoe County during the Columbine shooting, where 12 students and one teacher were killed by armed students. He didn’t personally respond to the incident – he was managing other calls in the county at the time – but friends and colleagues did.
He said the Columbine massacre marked a change in the tide of mass shootings as well as law enforcement’s responses to them.
Brammer has attended law enforcement seminars about other shootings, such as the 2017 Las Vegas concert shooting, the 2012 Aurora movie theater shooting and the 2017 Aztec school shooting where a gunman killed two students. He’s also instructed active shooter simulations for fellow law enforcement agencies.
Responses to mass shootings continue to evolve to this day, he said, and analysis of past events contribute to how protocols shift.
In 1999, the protocol was to get to the scene and request backup, which would typically arrive in the form of a SWAT team, Brammer said.
At the least, having three officers at the scene to respond was the norm, he said. He said it was still a kind of “sit and wait” scenario – the line of thinking was that three officers could have “360 coverage” while moving in on a threat.
Today, law enforcement are trained to prioritize stopping an active shooter above all else, he said.
“If you are the first officer on the scene and you can intervene in that situation and potentially stop it, stop it,” he said.
But situations aren’t always so simple.
“We’ve sworn an oath to protect and serve,” he said. “That’s a tricky one because of the fact that we didn’t swear an oath to go get killed and sacrifice ourselves needlessly. We don’t want to compound a situation.”
He emphasized the word “needlessly.”
A single officer response to an active shooter threat could go several ways: The first officer at the scene can relay real-time information to other responding officers. But if that officer engages a shooter and is injured or killed, not only are other responders losing that real-time information, the shooter may also be able to recover firearms or equipment from the downed officer.
On the other hand, if an officer is engaging an active shooter, then the shooter’s attention is focused on the officer and not civilians.
Brammer declined to comment about the Uvalde law enforcement’s handling of the massacre without more information about what unfolded and why. He said information about the incident changes on a daily basis and he won’t comment until he has read an official law enforcement report about the matter.
When asked what he thinks about a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that says police officers do not have a constitutional duty to protect people from harm, Brammer said it becomes a “morality issue” and an individual officer must live with whatever decision he or she makes.
He said if the Durango Police Department finds itself in a similar situation, he hopes officers have the “fortitude,” “dedication” and commitment to confront an active shooter.
He said two of his staff members, the deputy chief of police and a commander, responded to the Aztec school shooting in 2017, and the deputy chief’s daughter was attending that school.
“I was talking to him on the phone, saying, ‘What do you need from us, how can we support you?’” Brammer said. “And he goes, ‘I don’t know yet because I’m not even there yet.’ He’s got a kid in the school, the incident’s still occurring, he’s not even there yet.”
Brammer said during active shooter training, he would often remind officers that even if their loved ones are at the scene of an active crisis, their first priority is to eliminate any threats.
“There may be a place where you’re going to go in and it’s going to be your kid,” he said. “It’s going to be your spouse. Somebody you care about, your friend. Somebody is shot and bleeding on the floor. You step over them because you have to eliminate that threat or that’s going to continue to happen to other people.”
Brammer said DPD and other area law enforcement agencies go through active shooter training regularly so officers are conditioned to follow protocol if a situation emerges.
“We’re trained for this, we’re equipped for this, and that’s what I think is really important for the community to know,” he said. “... We train for this all the time.”
He said DPD has invested heavily in “certain pieces of equipment” for officers that include firearms, protective equipment and communications technology used to coordinate responses.
Training simulations often involve regional law enforcement agencies so officers can get used to cooperating with other groups, Brammer said. Agencies include Colorado State Patrol, La Plata County Sheriff’s Office, Durango Fire Protection District, EMS services, Mercy Hospital and Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
Durango School District 9-R is active in discussions and security assessments and has a direct line to the police department to provide a “live feed” of information to officers during emergencies, Brammer said.
The chief of police said response and preparedness to school shootings and other active shooter scenarios is a conversation that communities must have.
He said anybody with concerns or questions about DPD’s plan of action in an active shooter scenario is welcome to contact him.
“If anybody has direct concern or would like to further this conversation with us, my door is always open,” he said. “We invite them to come in. I’d be happy to go out and talk to anybody to reassure them of the capabilities and how seriously we take this threat.”
cburney@durangoherald.com
