LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department release video training on how to survive an active-shooter incident. The nine-minute video, which warns that it contains “graphic content of a violent nature,” is intended to encourage viewers to make a plan for an active-shooter incident just like they might plan for an earthquake or other type of natural disaster.
After an opening scene of an active shooter in a warehouse, the narrator explains that “since 2006, the U.S. has averaged an active-shooter event with four or more deaths every 2.9 months.”
As the video continues, facts about active-shooter incidents from the FBI and Homeland Security are interspersed with the important steps for personal survival, which are escape, cover and concealment, assist the injured if safe to do so, secure your location if you are unable to escape, and self-defense.
Most incidents are over in less than 15 minutes. Police officers, as they arrive, will first seek out and neutralize the shooter, passing by any injured victims. Meanwhile, first aid for any victims falls to other survivors. The training program recommends a first aid kit in classrooms and offices contain gloves and wound care items, as well as emergency plans for the building.
In the LASD active-shooter training program, the plan is that the “medical teams will enter the scene as soon as the suspect is no longer a threat or is confirmed in another location.”
The video also introduces “casualty cards” to provide information to emergency responders and speed communication. Pre-printed cards can quickly notify law enforcement and paramedics if there are any injured or wounded people in a room.
The video’s final instructions are a reminder of the heightened state of readiness of law enforcement. All survivors are instructed to keep their hands visible, calmly follow any commands, and not disrupt or engage with law enforcement – even to say thank you.