Arkansas School Safety Commission examine unified law enforcement response, chain of command plans as part of recommendations

Unified training regimen in state weighed

Cheryl May (center), chair of the Arkansas School Safety Commission, speaks during the commission's first meeting on Tuesday, June 14, 2022, at the state Capitol in Little Rock. Gov. Asa Hutchinson had reinstated the commission the previous week in the wake of recent events around the nation and an increased concern about safety in Arkansas schools. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Thomas Metthe)
Cheryl May (center), chair of the Arkansas School Safety Commission, speaks during the commission's first meeting on Tuesday, June 14, 2022, at the state Capitol in Little Rock. Gov. Asa Hutchinson had reinstated the commission the previous week in the wake of recent events around the nation and an increased concern about safety in Arkansas schools. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Thomas Metthe)


The Arkansas School Safety Commission is considering recommending establishing a unified law enforcement response in the event of a school shooting in an effort to prevent confusion during a crisis.

Commission member Bill Hollenbeck, chief of police for the Fort Smith School Police Department, said the Law Enforcement and Security subcommittee anticipates recommending a unified training regimen for law enforcement responding to an school shooter incident.

"An active shooter course is needed statewide so that we are all on the same page and there is no confusion," Hollenbeck said. "It's imperative that all first responders understand what the roles and responsibilities are during an active shooter situation, which is to quickly enter and eliminate the threat. No waiting."

He said a vendor for the potential unified training method has not been decided.

"We are possibly looking at recommending active shooter training statewide, but we are determining which group would provide that uniformed training," Hollenbeck said Tuesday. "We are also thinking about a yearly networking class to try to get up-to-date training for those officers. There is also the possibility of looking at model school districts to expand on the minimum standards."

A recommendation that all school districts and institutional agencies have policies in place for local law enforcement in regards to an active shooter response was discussed during Tuesday's meeting.

Dr. Cheryl May, director for the Criminal Justice Institute and head of the Arkansas School Safety Commission, said the commission only has the power to make recommendations and that it would take the state Legislature to turn any recommendations into law.

Hollenbeck said the commission also needs to look at recommending that school resource officers be equipped with body armor, shields and forcible entry tools that allow them to react quickly to a threat on campus, as well as tactical training on how to engage a threat by themselves.

"Getting the entire state on the same page is vitally important," Hollenbeck said. "I know that our officers throughout the state wouldn't hesitate to do that, but making sure we have that uniformed training is extremely important for our students and staff to know."

Hollenbeck said school resource officers in his department train for "solo engagement," and he supports expanding that idea statewide as part of the uniformed response proposal.

"Our officers are specifically trained to not wait for backup, but to immediately assess the threat, engage the threat and stop that threat," he said.

Such training also needs to be available for armed staff at schools, he said.

RESPONSE AT UVALDE

Gov. Asa Hutchinson reinstated the Arkansas School Safety Commission on June 10 in the aftermath of several mass shootings across the nation, including the May 24 shooting that left 19 children and two adults dead at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.

The gunman, identified as 18-year-old Salvador Ramos of Uvalde, was killed by law enforcement officers after they waited more than an hour to confront the shooter inside a locked classroom. The incident was among the worst K-12 school shootings since the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., that left 26 dead.

One of the key concerns in the wake of the Uvalde shooting was the length of time it took officers to enter once it was known that a gunman was in the building and had fired shots.

The New York Times reported that the school district's police chief, who led the response, appeared to agonize over how long it took to secure protective shields for officers entering the building and to find a key to the classroom doors.

Police waited more than an hour before breaching the fourth grade classroom at Robb Elementary, and some victims likely could have been saved had they received medical attention sooner, a review by a training center for active shooter situations at Texas State University found.

Authors of the 26-page report said their findings were based off video taken from the school, police body cameras, testimony from officers on the scene and statements from investigators. Among their findings was that an "effective incident command" never appears to have been established among the multiple law enforcement agencies that responded to the shooting.

Arkansas' original school safety commission, created in March 2018, submitted 30 recommendations in its original 124-page report. Among those recommendations was that schools should have a memorandum of understanding with local police departments or sheriff's offices regarding the plan to protect students during an active shooter event.

Such plans are not available to the public.

"We do have emergency response plans, but Act 541 protects that document and prevents us from sharing it due to safety reasons," said Ron Self, director of safety and security management for the Little Rock School District.

Dustin Barnes, a spokesperson for the North Little Rock School District, said its response plan depends on the severity of the situation.

"The first level would be [North Little Rock Police Department]. If it is larger, like we saw in Uvalde, it would be the FBI," he said.

Scott Gauntt, superintendent for the Westside School District in Jonesboro, said a chain of command is not in the district's memorandum of understanding, but officials have a plan in place.

"We have a Craighead County deputy as a school resource officer on campus [in addition to two other school resource officers provided by the district], so in the event of an emergency, we have already put in place the line of communication that we would follow," he said.

Kimberly Mundell, spokeswoman for the Arkansas Department of Education, said currently the draft memorandum of understanding for school resource officers does not address how a response to an active shooter will be handled.

"That is a law enforcement decision made at the time of the event; however districts are encouraged to involve law enforcement as part of the drill and safety planning done by schools," she said.

CHAIN OF COMMAND

The 2018 recommendations didn't include a "chain of command" recommendation, but Hollenbeck said most policies and procedures for law enforcement are already in place.

"On an active shooter, the first person in command is that first officer on the scene," he said. "He doesn't need to be a sergeant or a chief of police when there is an active threat to make the decision to stop that threat."

Chris Chapmond, chief of the Hot Springs Police Department and president of the Arkansas Association of Chiefs of Police, agreed that the first responding officer is in charge of the scene initially.

"It empowers the officers to take action, but also eliminates any confusion during an active shooter situation," he said.

Chapmond said that is important because things can get chaotic once other law enforcement agencies arrive on the scene.

"Officers on scene make those initial decisions until eventually someone who is their senior needs to take over," he said. "In a large county you can receive assistance from all the local entities, including Game and Fish. That is why we need a unified command system."

Chapmond said the current model means that a law enforcement officer might not be the most qualified person to take over command.

"The most qualified person can be anyone from any department," he said. "Egos have got to be checked and left at the door. This means the fire chief might be the most qualified person, or the emergency management director might be the most qualified person depending on the situation.

"All that matters is that a joint unified command can prepare you for the scene."

Members of the Arkansas State Police usually arrive on the scene during most crisis incidents, but Bill Sadler, a spokesman for the state agency, said that doesn't necessarily mean state police will assume control of the situation.

Depending on the circumstances, Sadler said, most local jurisdictions are familiar with the personnel and equipment resources state police can provide and routinely call on state police for assistance.

"In some instances, the local jurisdiction may ask the state police to take command and control or the lead, or work together through a unified command," he said.

Sadler said in an example of a potential school shooting, local police or the sheriff's office would initially respond, and upon their arrival they can request assistance from state police.

"Once the trooper is there he would contact his supervisor and explain what assistance is being requested," Sadler said.

Sadler said what agency takes control of a unified command would come down to the specific request of the local jurisdiction.

"For example, state police SWAT has a standing policy with local sheriffs or police chiefs that if you want SWAT to intervene, then we will ask the sheriff or police chief to extract their people and have ASP stand in," he said.

Sadler said a unified response may have been discussed previously, but it has always been a case-by-case basis and the decision of the local police department.

Hollenbeck said even though there are plans in place on how to respond to an active shooter threat and the way chain of command works, it's important to have it unified because it will allow the plan to be documented for the public.

"Our students and staff have the right to hear and know that these officers know exactly what to do in an active shooter situation, and that is to eliminate the threat as soon as possible," he said.


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