LITTLE RIVER, SC (WBTW) – School shootings can happen in an instant, which is why Horry County law enforcement officers are training to respond.
The Horry County Police Department hosted active shooter training inside Waterway Elementary School in Little River on Tuesday. During the training, officers practiced hallway movements, room clearing, taking cover and single-man tactics, which is a fairly new technique police say is important to know in the worst-case scenario.
“With the uptick in these situations that are taking place, we need to stay one step ahead, especially in our training,” Cpl. Kevin Cast, HCPD training supervisor said.
Horry County police have trained for active shooter situations inside schools for more than a decade, two times a year. They train at different schools around the county so they can become familiar with the different structures and layouts.
“We’ve incorporated some of the newer buildings with all of the glass, we’ve gone to some of the older buildings, and getting our officers in schools twice a year has paid dividends on tactics and showing that our officers are staying current and fresh on some of the footwork and some of the movements we do in the hallways and classrooms,” Cast said.
Although the active shooter scenario on Tuesday wasn’t real, officers who participated in the training know real danger can happen any day.
“There is an increase in these situations, it’s all over the news, it’s in the media, and unfortunately that is where we as a society are very vulnerable is our children and our schools and, it’s important to keep it fresh in these officer’s minds that there are bad people out there who want to do bad things and they know how to affect our nation,” Cast said.
However, over the years, officers have started using technology like body camera footage, surveillance video and data collected from a real school shooting to their advantage when it comes to training.
“We can take that information that is provided to us through our different channels and look at some of the tactics that the bad guy uses and the officers that have used in that agency, in other states and other parts of the world and see what they did right, what they did wrong, what works for them, and then we can adapt our training program towards that,” Cast said.
Unfortunately, the question isn’t if officers will ever have to face a school shooter– but when, and they want to be ready.
“They’re the front lines, so when one of these situations takes place, they’re going to be the first ones there, they’re going to be the first ones in, and they may end up going in by themselves, and the goal is to stop it from happening and reduce the amount of lives lost,” Cast said.
