SAN ANTONIO – Alamo College District police officers took part in a two-day training exercise this weekend to prepare them to deal with an active shooter situation on campus.
“It puts the officers in a situation where we’ve got gunshots going off, people screaming and a lot of things happening that is what they’re going to encounter when they get into one of these active shooter situations,” said Sgt. Cliff Grumbles, the programs training coordinator.
The training program which includes both classroom and situation training was developed at Texas State University. The university also provided the equipment used in this weekend’s training.
“We use ‘simunitions’ in training so there’s an exchange of gunfire between the officers and the bad guys,” Grumbles said.
Working in teams the officers, with weapons drawn and protective shields in place, move methodically from one classroom to another looking for the shooter.
“This type of training is actually for someone who is trying to get a body count – someone just killing indiscriminately,” Grumbles said.
“I don’t think you can ever train enough,” he said. “It’s one of those things as a law enforcement officer we train and train and train, but you hope you never have to use it.”