SAN ANTONIO – The Bexar County Sheriff's Office partnered with the West San Antonio Chamber of Commerce on Thursday to host an active shooter awareness program to help residents and small businesses prepare for a potential armed intruder.
The workshop on Civilian Response to Active Shooter Events, or CRASE, at City Church on Bandera Road, trained attendees on:
- An introduction to disaster response psychology.
- Ways to avoid being trapped inside a building.
- Raising awareness about stress response.
- Understanding and preparing for police response.
- Best practices for assisting law enforcement and limiting casualties.
The mass shooting in November at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs is prompting local churches to take precautions to respond carefully and quickly to active shooter situations.
"We're definitely working on updating our plan when those events happen," said Jerome Oddo, director of operations at City Church. "It makes us look at what we have in place to make sure that our attendees are safe when they come here on campus. And to make sure we have a plan of action for our employees, as well."
The training curriculum was presented by Bexar County Sheriff's Office Deputy Chief Aristides Jimenez and prepared by Texas State University's Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training.
The FBI in 2013 named the curriculum as the "National Standard in Active Shooter Response training."
For more information on how to schedule a workshop, send an email to: info@westsachamber.org.