Area police prepare for active shooters

Some area police departments have well-equipped and trained special weapons and tactics teams. The specially trained officers practice working in tandem to handle certain situations, including drug busts and even hostage situations.

Those tactical teams are best equipped to respond to active-shooter situations such as the one Wednesday in San Bernardino, California, in which 14 people were killed. But they take time to deploy, meaning patrol officers typically are the first to arrive on the scene.

With limited resources, rural counties face bigger response challenges than metro areas, as the response time becomes a bigger factor.

An officer moves through the hallway of Jackson High School's old A Building during a joint training exercise Aug. 26 between the Jackson Police Department Special Response Team and the Sikeston, Missouri, Department of Public Safety Special Operations Group. (Glenn Landberg)

Lt. Dane Stausing said the Scott County Sheriff Emergency Response Team could have at least five of its nine members ready and at the scene of an active shooter or hostage situation in 30 minutes.

"That's the only bad thing about being a county," Stausing said of the time it takes to get to crime scenes.

He knows it takes about 5 minutes to get to Kelly schools and between 7 and 10 minutes to get to Scott Central High School.

A shooting in a school is one of the worst scenarios his team has practiced, having conducted training at the schools in the summer and other off months.

Stausing said Scott County has received reports multiple-shooter situations, as was the case in the San Bernardino shooting Wednesday, are becoming increasingly common.

"The bad guys have just as good or better equipment than we do," Stausing said. "When you get these mass shootings, they're using assault rifles just like us."

Lt. John Davis, leader of the Cape Girardeau Special Response Team, said he could have his team's 13 members ready to deploy in 30 minutes, but that's too long in an active-shooter situation.

With an active shooter, all available Cape Girardeau units will be dispatched immediately. In the case of a shooter with an assault rifle, as was the case Wednesday, most officers will not have armor to protect themselves against those rounds, as SRT members would in tactical gear.

"Very rarely are all 13 of us working at the same time," Davis said. "You don't want to wait a half an hour to deploy. The boots on the ground have to react."

Davis said the department has trained for active-shooter scenarios at Southeast Missouri State University and in local public schools. Both the Scott County SERT and Cape Girardeau SRT train monthly -- Scott County for at least eight hours and Cape Girardeau for at least four hours.

Sheriff John Jordan said Cape Girardeau County does not have a tactical team because Cape Girardeau and Jackson both have teams, but each of the sheriff's department's 18 patrol officers is equipped with tactical gear, which costs about $7,000 per officer.

As with the Cape Girardeau Police Department, the response to an active shooter is to send every available unit, and Jordan added all the agencies in the area have this type of response, sending in several units across county lines if necessary.

"We have what the military has as far as tactical vests," Jordan said. "You have to run to gunfire; it's what police officers have done. Typically, to try to save lives, you risk your own. I want my guys to have every tool available for them if I'm going to ask them to put their life on the line."

Jordan said his department has training twice a year, but officers are encouraged to shoot at the range often.

"It's very sad what happened, but it's going to happen again," Jordan said of San Bernardino. "This was a terrorist event."

Stausing and Jordan differed on the desire for civilians to react against an active shooter.

Jordan encourages citizens to get concealed-carry permits and to react when faced with gunfire.

"When seconds count, we're minutes away," Jordan said.

Stausing said he understands the instinct to act in a crisis situation, but it might be difficult for SERT members to differentiate between a civilian with a gun and a suspect.

"If it is going to take a while for us to get there, they can help," Stausing said. "Once law enforcement shows up, they need to step down."

Jordan said his officers are trained to know the difference between a suspect and a civilian.

"We train to recognize who the bad guy is," he said.

Both Stausing and Davis said the main purpose of their departments' tactical teams is to respond to high-risk search warrants.

Both tactical teams are part-time, with officers performing other duties most days. Stausing said the cost of training, which includes lodging for officers and paying overtime for other officers covering shifts, can be high.

While they have responded to suspects barricaded in buildings, Scott County SERT has yet to exchange gunfire with a suspect.

"We haven't had anyone shoot any rounds at us," Stausing said. "Knock on wood."

Cape Girardeau County and Jackson have experience with a shooter with an assault rifle.

Lawrence Guthrie, 49, of Jackson began shooting at officers in 2012 after a domestic dispute.

Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. Shawn Price exchanged gunfire with Guthrie, who was standing on the street, according to officers. At some point, Guthrie retreated behind shrubbery near a house in a subdivision, and David James, now a captain in the sheriff's department, saw him in the woods and called out to him.

Jordan said James took extra precautions to make sure the person in the bush was indeed a shooter rather than perhaps a child trying to hide.

Guthrie shot at James about six times before James returned four shotgun blasts, one of which hit Guthrie in the hand, disabling him as a shooter, officials said.

"That happened right here in Jackson," Jordan said. "It was right on the edge of the Jackson city limits, a high(-density) residential area. There were schools in shooting distance. Some of the rounds this guy fired were found near the school."

bkleine@semissourian.com

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