It’s only a drill
POUGHKEEPSIE – It appeared to be the real thing – guns drawn, bullet proof vests on – but it was a multi-jurisdictional active shooter training drill conducted by the Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office and open to all law enforcement in the county and surrounding areas. The training session held Thursday was conducted at the former Arthur S. May School in the City of Poughkeepsie.
This training exercise consisted of officers, acting both as officers and assailants, sweeping each room, suppressing hostile fire, neutralizing the “assailants,” then clearing each room for civilians to either be evacuated or provided medical attention when needed.
Officers used a combination of live, blank rounds, Simunition, which is a non-lethal, exploding round, filled with a special type of soap that can be fired out of standard police firearms, and full tactical gear. Also, audio-projected simulated screaming was played through speakers during the drill, as well as a simulated fire alarm, and a smoke machine was used. It was all designed to make the situation as realistic as possible and place the officers’ senses into high alert, said Lt. James Benson of the Town of Hyde Park Police Department.
“Adding those things definitely heightens your sensitivity to what’s going on around you,” Benson said. “So, that’s why it’s important to have fog, have a fire alarm going off; those are things that are going to be really happening in this scenario. So, you could stand here, at a range all day, and simulate, ok, so you have someone shooting over there, practice taking aim on the target and shoot, but when you’re going through and your adrenaline’s flowing and you’re jumping over things, you’re crawling through things, you still have to listen and be alert to things that are coming at you. So, it’s very important to do these live kinds of trainings instead of just standing outside at a range and shooting at a piece of paper.”
Captain Gerard Lennon of the Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office said this training is for officers of all ranks and seniorities.
“It’s for every rank,” Lennon said. “The irony is, it’s not meant for the new officer, it’s meant for the seasoned officer who hasn’t done it in a while and who can then freshen up on their skills.”
Officers at the training said, statistically, someone is being engaged by a hostile every 18 seconds, making it especially important for officers to have this training if the worst case scenario were to happen.
The training was open to sworn officers from all surrounding departments, not just ones located inside the county and cost approximately $100,000 to facilitate. The primary expense was payroll costs for backfill of staff at the various departments; however, the entire cost was covered under each department’s training budgets and at no additional taxpayer dollars.
