The Georgetown University Police Department released a new website and training program Jan. 13 for how to act in the event of an active shooter.
Created in conjunction with the Department of Emergency Management and Continuity of Operations, the website includes information and resources to use in an active shooter situation, intervention and prevention resources, a registration form for the training course and an outline of the “Run, Hide, Fight” protocol.
The training program is a 30-minute course that draws from federal law enforcement practices and is taught by GUPD officers and DEMOC members. The course incorporates the concept of “See Something, Say Something” and is meant to instruct groups.
GUPD Chief Jay Gruber said that recent shootings, both in the United States and in other countries, inspired the formation of the website and program.
“We think it’s very important because with a lot of the more recent shootings in Paris and San Bernardino, it really became important for us to make sure that our students, faculty and staff knew what to do in an active shooter situation,” Gruber said. “We thought it was important to actually be able to do some training and provide some really direct information, so that’s why we developed a website and that’s why we want to do these half-hour trainings for people on campus.”
Gruber said that although the training programs are directed at student groups, the majority of groups that have signed up are faculty and staff.
“There haven’t been a lot of student groups signed up. They’re really our target audience,” Gruber said.
Gruber added that the course would be available 24 hours a day for student groups.
Although the website and the training programs were created as a consequence of recent shootings, Gruber said that there is no immediate threat to the Georgetown area.
“There’s no recent threats in our area, there’s been no recent shootings in our area or anything else that has prompted us locally to increase our push for people to be trained and to understand active shootings,” Gruber said.
