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Thursday, March 29, 2012
A group of police officers from seven agencies in Etowah County faced a worst nightmare: a live shooter in a school. Fortunately it was an exercise, in an old school building that's no longer in use.
Officers and deputies underwent Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training, or ALERRT. They spent one day in class, then much of Thursday walking through steps on securing rooms and hallways in an active shooter situation.
What was unusual about this case is, the officers and deputies were not part of traditional SWAT or special operations units. They were everyday patrol officers, and that was the point.
The exercise was also meant to teach officers from different departments, who may suddenly find themselves on an active shooter scene, to work together. And some had to do just that last August, during a manhunt for a shooter that killed an Anniston police officer in nearby Calhoun County.
"In real life, we're going to have to work together and not be divided up into this city or this county, or this department," says one of the instructors, Lt. Ryan Bennett of the Alabama Department of Conservation.
Bennett says the officers have to be ready for everything from international terrrorists and domestic hate/sovereign citizens groups, to otherwise normal people who suddenly "snap" without warning.
Among the agencies who sent personnel: Etowah County Sheriff's Office, and police departments in Gadsden, Glencoe, Hokes Bluff and Attalla. The exercise, even the classroom part, took place in the now-closed Stowers Hill Intermediate School in Attalla.
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Keywords: Etowah County, law enforcement, school,
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