September 29, 2017 at 4:12 p.m.
City Hall staffers to participate in active shooter preparedness training
Gauthier: 'Violence is rising in our country'
City Hall staffers to participate in active shooter preparedness training
The discussion began after a suggestion was made to have the Rhinelander Police Department conduct active shooter training for City Hall employees and elected officials to prepare anyone who might be in the building for a potential worst-case scenario.
Rhinelander Police Chief Lloyd Gauthier told the committee that city clerk Val Foley attended a conference recently and contacted him afterward to ask what City Hall staff should do if an active shooter incident were to take place. He said he told Foley that a training session could be put together.
"The more I thought about it, I thought would it be possible if we could take an hour during the designated day where the staff downstairs feels it's the least busiest where maybe we could close City Hall for one hour and we could have everyone together and we can talk about this," Gauthier said. "Then we could have Sgt. (Angela) Mertz come in and talk about active shooter situations. Then people can go to their work stations and look at 'what would I do if I were in this room and something happened downstairs, or if I'm in this room and something is happening across the hall, if I'm in the water department and something is happening in the clerk's office.'"
Gauthier said it would be necessary to close the building so the employees could focus on the training and not have to worry about answering the phone or other distractions.
"It gives undivided attention and it frees up the building," he said, adding that the goal would be to get people thinking about what they would do, and maybe even run through a brief scenario to help reinforce the training and "anchor" it in their memory.
"It is something we have been offering different businesses in our community, this active shooter training, just to get people aware that it could be an ex-worker, it could be an upset citizen," Gauthier said. "Violence is rising in our country, and just take an hour to be prepared. Hopefully nothing like that would ever happen, but if it were to happen it would be nice to have something under your belt as an employee on what you should do."
Alderman Tom Gleason, who is a retired RPD officer, pointed out the entrance doors to City Hall have signs that say weapons are prohibited inside.
"By taking away the weapons, you're creating a target-rich environment because an active shooter is not going to adhere to that sign," Gleason said. "They are just going to walk right past it and you're going to have a whole building of unarmed people that they can do with as they please until a rescue gets here."
Committee chair Alex Young said the issue is something that is not unique to just Rhinelander's City Hall and that closing the building for an hour to train employees would be a good use of time.
"The county has had discussions over the years about courthouse security issues," Young said. "We're in a fairly small town in a fairly rural area and you think that these things don't happen. I mean, most of the time, doors are unlocked and you're free to come in; that's good for access to the public, and you hope something like this doesn't happen. But it does happen sometimes, and stressful scenarios like that, it's probably good to have some practice ahead of time, because when the adrenaline is pumping, sometimes decision making is not as easy. So if you've got something pretty wired in there from some training in advance, it's probably good for the employees and good for all of us."
Gleason also noted that the training should probably be held more than once.
"You react based on training, and if you only train once, and you just kind of blow it off, when the product hits the fan, so to speak. If you forget your training, you're basically going to be a victim," Gleason said. "That's why the current officers and us former officers train and train and train because when you're in a panic situation, or when others around you are in a panic situation, you will fall back on your training and you will act, or react, without even thinking about what you're doing."
Young said it was not unlike how firefighters repeatedly train for different scenarios they might face because it is better to practice what to do 100 times to be able to know how to react for the real event.
"If you're going to do something like this, you're going to have to do it more than once," Gleason repeated. "It should be at least an annual thing, if not semi-annual."
Alderman Tom Kelly agreed that repetition helps in reinforcing training tips.
"My other suggestion, and I don't know what the feasibility would be, but to do this in small groups," Kelly said. "I think smaller groups would work better. Now I may be wrong."
Gauthier also mentioned City Council meetings where the entire city government is together in one room.
"That could be an environment that could be inviting to someone who is upset about something, a tent structure or something like that," he said.
Young said it would be beneficial if everyone received the same training so they would all be "on the same page" on how to react to an active shooter.
"That way they know what everybody else is going to do and what to expect from others," Young said. "I think we should have Lloyd work with the City Hall staff and try to come up with some dates and times that would work with everybody and then we move forward with it."
Because there would be no money spent directly on the training, other than man-hours, the committee took no vote on the matter but everyone present agreed it was a good idea.
Jamie Taylor may be reached via email at [email protected].
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