Investigation: Philadelphia SWAT hold simulated school shooter training
The officers are among the best when it comes to dealing with a mass casualty shooting response.
PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Action News sat down with members of the Philadelphia Police Department and the School District of Philadelphia to learn about the challenges of a sprawling urban educational system, and how prepared they are to deal with a school shooter.
It comes after the March 27 Nashville school shooting that left six people dead. The police response to the shooting has garnered praise and shined a spotlight on training.
Action News' cameras were rolling during a safety training at the Philadelphia Police Academy. SWAT units moved swiftly as actors on the ground screamed.
The officers are among the best when it comes to dealing with a mass casualty shooting response.
"The abnormal is very normal for us," said Chief Inspector Mike Cram.
Cram runs the Special Operations Bureau, which is tasked with teaching officers how to respond.
"Kind of get some of that hesitation out because now they don't have to think right? So a lot of repetitiveness. So they're not thinking, they're just reacting," said Cram, who is among those praising the effort of the Nashville police response.
"Textbook, one word, textbook," he said.
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Sgt. Christopher Binns, who runs the school shooter training every officer undergoes, said the instruction is critical.
That is because SWAT likely won't be first on scene during an incident. Instead, district officers on patrol will be responding.
"After Columbine, policy and procedure changed because you can no longer wait for your tactical team to get there," said Sgt. Binns.
Cram added, "You take some of our young officers that are in our busy, most violent police districts, and they're getting seven years of experience thrown into one."
Cram said Philadelphia police are accustomed to gunfire, extreme violence, and chaotic situations.
Like Nashville, he expects no hesitation by his officers to confront a shooter, and seconds saved means lives saved.
"A tactic is a tactic," Binns said. "No matter where you deploy that tactic, it stays the same."
Chief of School Safety Kevin Bethel is a former Philadelphia Police Deputy Commissioner and is now the school district's top cop.
"We have a lot of dynamics obviously, a lot larger blueprint of schools -- over 240 plus schools," he said.
Unlike many other school districts, violence and the presence of guns in his schools are more common than he'd like. But that means officers know the lay of the land.
"Most of them are in and out of our schools on a regular basis," said Chief Bethel.
A concern for him is not only an active shooter inside a school but outside, like the barrage of bullets outside Roxborough High School last year that killed one student and injured four others.
"We've had significant incidents where we've had students killed very close to our buildings," he said.
Bethel told the Action News investigative team that the district will implement a new training model for staff called ALICE. It stands for: Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, and Evacuate.
"We're working with our professional development team now on how to institute the model," he said.
Bethel said his buildings are largely secure and locked. Most have metal detectors and some have cameras.
But he stresses there needs to be balance, especially when dealing with a school population already dealing with the everyday gun violence in their neighborhoods.
"It is a challenge. I mean, you know, schools were not built to be prisons," he said.
Bethel said the district will also be implementing a new app that will allow teachers and administrators to alert police of an incident with the push of a button.
