MARANA- The Marana Police Department is putting its officers through intensive active shooter response training with a focus on saving lives in a mass casualty event.
The department has been at the forefront of active-shooter training over the last several years, participating in trainings with the Tucson Police Department, Pima County Regional SWAT, and Border Patrol. However, this most recent training takes their response one step further by expanding the scale.
“This will be the first year that we are taking the training to a full-scale event for an active shooter situation, and it allows us to take it from the dispatch call all the way to extraction,” said Marana Police Officer and Active Shooter Response Trainer Jerry Ysaguirre.
Throughout the month of August, MPD set up different scenarios with live ‘victims’ to simulate a real-world situation. They also implemented a Rescue Task Force with the Northwest Fire District to train to get casualties out of a particular area while also securing the building.
“We’re trying to be better prepared for a situation like this,” said Officer Ysaguirre.
The Rescue Task Force will allow the Marana Police Department to bring Fire and EMS into what is called a “warm zone” for the first time, an area where a potential active threat exists.
“In the past, Fire and EMS had to stand off and wait until officers were able to guarantee the entire building was 100 percent clear, but because we’re forming Rescue Task Forces— which is at least a minimum of two officers with Fire and EMS— we can actually escort them into a warm zone, in a semi-clear area where we can triage victims in place and coordinate outside with a unified command which is the next officer on scene,” explained Marana Police Officer and Active Shooter Response Trainer John Shafe.
Officers also trained to think about everything that could happen in an actual incident, including where to park and how to find a way into a locked building.
“We are going to do our best to be ready, to be prepared, to give our officers all the tactics and training and tools they could possibly need to have a successful response to one of these incidents,” said Officer Shafe.
Officer Shafe has a final message for the community. “You can know 100 percent that every officer I know here in Marana is going to not hesitate, but is going to respond and put their lives at risk whatever we have to do to stop that threat as soon as we possibly can. We take the training seriously for triage and trauma care to be able to assess and treat in place prior to even Fire or EMS arriving and any potential victims who are wounded, we will have the capability and resources to extract them and get them to a trauma center as soon as possible.”
