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GRANTS PASS — This week, law enforcement from Grants Pass Department of Public Safety, Josephine County Sheriff’s Office and Oregon State Police came together at North Middle School and Highland Elementary school to train for an active shooter situation.
“Shots being fired, you need to get in here, get down the hall as quickly as possible,” Sergeant Mike Mace yells over the fire alarm.
He runs down the hallway of Highland Elementary following the sounds of gun shots being fired.
He’s looking in open doors and passing injured civilians to get to his first priority, finding and stopping the suspect in any way possible.
“194 – I have one main suspect down, main classroom at the end of the hallway,” Mace radios to other officers.
“You’ve got to move, get down there and stop the threat, other officers are coming,” Mace says as his heart is racing.
Local law enforcement have been facing similar scenarios all week as part of the active shooter training however, each time they enter the building the scene is a little different.
This is because GPDPS is trying to make the simulation as realistic as possible.
“Were trying to make the training as realistic as we possibly can. We want to be training in an environment that we may be responding to,” Lieutenant Misty English says.
Some of the things they’re practicing are new tactics and different movement methods.
The three agencies are working together to build communication skills between the different agencies. Lt. English says if they had to respond to an active shooter in the are, all the local law enforcement would show up so it’s important they know how to work together.
“If there was an incident at a school in the county, we would be responding with the other agencies as well,” Lt. English says. “That’s why its especially important, we’ve got all of these agencies together and they’re really been working well together going through this training.”
English says they plan to continue this training every year.
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