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Medford police will be ready, if it happens Mail Tribune / Drew Fleming From left, Medford police officers Kim Sorrels, Jason Becker, Tom Ferris and Stacey Beck keep their weapons at the ready after downing an "active shooter" � actually an unidentified member of Medford�s SWAT team � with paintball hits in recent training at the Santo Center. Instead of waiting for a SWAT team to arrive, patrol officers are now being trained to respond to incidents where a gunman is actively shooting people. By JILL BRISKEY Edging down a darkened hallway with her gun extended, Medford police officer Stacey Beck narrowly misses running into a screaming student. "He�s killing people! He�s still shooting!" the young man yells. "Which direction? ... Where is the shooter?" Beck asks. But the student has already disappeared. Surrounded by three officers, Beck makes her way through the hallways of the Santos Center. Moving in tandem, the group soon encounters an armed man bursting out of a classroom. They fire. He goes down. New label: �active shooter� The term "active shooter" is a new term in police vocabulary. Medford police define an active shooter as, "armed person who has used deadly physical force on other persons and continues to do so while having unrestricted access to individual victims." A school isn�t the only place an active shooter can strike, according to Medford police Lt. Tim George. A case can take place at a residence, business, shopping mall or grocery store, he said. Police are being trained to take out an active shooter by using deadly force unless the suspect surrenders immediately, George said. "This isn�t about negotiations," he said. "In a situation like this, where violence is a real threat, there�s no taking chances." The gunman, a member of Medford�s SWAT team, gets up and examines the blue splatters of paint on his helmet while officers look on. The simulation was just one phase of a department-wide training session conducted last week. With coaching from Medford�s SWAT team leaders, officers were taught how to find and take out an "active shooter." A catch phrase used by schools and law enforcement, an active shooter is a person who has used deadly force within a large group of people and still poses a threat. "This is to hunt down the active shooter and neutralize the active shooter," Medford police Lt. Tim George said of the training. "We don�t always have the time for a SWAT team to be deployed. There has be a game plan by the initial responding officer." The training, scheduled long before the recent San Diego school shooting, will teach officers how to react in school settings, public gathering areas, businesses or private homes, George said. In the past, police responding to an active-shooter case would wait for the deployment of a SWAT team. George said police agencies now respond immediately when the threat is first reported. "There has to be a game plan by the initial responding officers," George said. "In the past we taught patrol to respond, to set up a perimeter. Now we�re insisting that the officers take immediate action." The training process will allow the first officers on the scene to set up a tactical plan before entering the building. "The key to a lot of it is the handling of the immediate spike of activity," George said. "There is a lot of stuff happening at once." The training, said Medford SWAT team leader Sgt. Bob Sergi, teaches officers to work together. "These people will most likely be the first to respond," Sergi said. "We need all of our patrol to be familiar with the tactics." Last week�s training session included classroom sessions and actual simulations. "We�re teaching tactics so you can safely enter a building," SWAT member Sgt. Jerry Burchfiel said. "You are going to hunt down the source and stop it." George said the potential is always there that police will have to handle a case of an active shooter . "It�s a sad commentary on society," he said. "That doesn�t mean we aren�t going to prepare and train for every possibility." Officers will keep practicing during team training sessions or while on duty, George said. "These are the type of things that we�ll keep doing to stay sharp," George added. "They have the basic steps of the dance down. How well they dance depends on how much they practice." Reach reporter Jill Briskey at 776-4485, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.