FOND DU LAC, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – During an active shooter conference Wednesday in Fond du Lac, agencies from around the state heard from those who’ve dealt with the situations, first-hand.
Images of active shooter and mass casualty situations in the U.S. have become much more common.
The F.B.I. says these incidents have increased 600% in the last 15 years.
Jay Darin, a Special Agent with the FBI, spoke to WLUK.
“There’s been more and more every single year. So it’s not a phenomenon that’s going to go away, they’re ever-increasing.”
But there are many viewpoints on the best way to combat this issue.
For one… President Trump is planning to re-issue his executive order, halting travel from seven nations he says pose a high risk of terrorism.
But San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan, says he’s not sure this policy would prevent similar incidents.
“The male suspect in our case was an American citizen, born and raised in the United States and he was a radicalized. He even had been involved in a conspiracy back in 2011-2012, long before he met [the female suspect in the San Bernardino shooting], so he was dangerous in and of himself. A different policy may or not have prevented her, she legally entered the country on an immigration visa, so I don’t know that it’s going to completely stop everything.”
He says what he does believe can help… is training.
“On that particular day, the men and women who responded kind of went into training mode, and they knew exactly what they were trained to do. We’re one of the folks in the industry that have some life experience of actually doing this. We saw what worked, we saw what didn’t work, our goal is simply to share that with other professionals in the field, with the hope that God forbid they have to deal with something similar, that they could respond and respond effectively.”
Burguan came to Fond du Lac Wednesday, for an active shooter response conference, to share what he and his department learned in the December 2015 San Bernardino attack.
The conference focused on the joint training for fire, police, and EMS units from all over Wisconsin.
William Lamb is the Fond du Lac Police Chief.
“Preparedness for all the different services, we all have a different role and responsibility in the event of one of these crises”
Conference organizers say it’s also important to train for the cooperation of the surrounding communities.
Burguan said, “We’ve got some capacity within our organization, but even this particular incident, this particular day well exceeded what I had available to respond.”
The conference had the goal of training emergency personnel to save as many lives as possible.
Darin said, “We know they’re going to happen, we just have to be ready for them.”
Conference organizers say this joint training of EMS, fire, and police units is the first of its kind in the state.
