ALICE and RUN/HIDE/FIGHT and so many more—which strategy should you use?
The best way for you to evaluate this is to think solely from your perspective as an employer who has the duty of care to protect all personnel.
So, with that in mind…
- Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT) is for law enforcement personnel, not you.
- RAIDER (Rapid Deployment, Awareness, Intervention, Decisiveness, EMS, Recovery) is for law enforcement personnel, not you.
- The Active Shooter Threat Instructor Training Program (ASTITP) is for law enforcement personnel, not you.
- The Law Enforcement First Responder Training Program (LEFRTP) is for law enforcement personnel, not you.
- Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers (FLETC) is for law enforcement personnel, not you.
- “I Love You Guys” is not about Active Shooter response per se. It tries to be a response planning protocol for any emergency. It’s for your use as the management who plans and trains for many emergencies, not about employees responding to an Active Shooter in 4-8 minutes.
- ALICE, Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, and Evacuate is about you and your personnel.
- RUN, HIDE, FIGHT is about you and your personnel.
Emergency Insight #1: I recommend R/H/F because I believe that, in many of these incidents, if your population is alerted, then many/most occupants can absent themselves and not become part of the Active Shooter carnage. I call it ALERT/RUN/HIDE/FIGHT. Alert means we alert 911 simultaneously with alerting all occupants so that A/R/H/F or ALICE can be implemented.
If our occupants don’t know of the incident, they can’t respond at all.
I like ALICE less because it does not first ask if you can absent yourself.
So, I recommend A/R/H/F.
Emergency Insight #2: The generalities are dangerous. A/R/H/F is different in every site. Employees in an open cubicle farm will respond differently than those in a traditional office setting. What should you do if you’re in or near a bathroom? How about a large conference room or theater? An open courtyard?
Emergency Insight #3: A further problem is asking your police department or a 3-letter, federal agency to plan or train your people. The issue here is that they train your people on what law enforcement does. Very important. But this is the sound of one hand clapping. LE agencies do not know or care about your duty of care and how you shall plan and train from the employer’s perspective. LE knows nothing about NFPA, ASIS and OSHA standards – all of which will be brought to bear against you when the peat moss hits the fan – be it an Active Shooter or any other emergency. So, get LE involved. But that is only one of many steps you must take if you are going to get this right.
Emergency Insight #4: Know that Workers Comp will not apply in cases of negligence. Don’t believe anyone – including your counsel – if they say “We can’t be sued.” Ha! Everyone gets sued and loses in these cases because of gross negligence – failure to plan and failure to train.
God bless America.
The Newtown Public Schools in Connecticut are learning this now as the lawsuits begin. How much do you think they will settle these suits for?
Are we having fun yet?
No, we aren’t.
If this were fun, easy, cheap or fast, you would have done it already.
On the contrary, this is ugly, complicated, expensive and slow to get your management out of denial and into planning and training.
How can we help you determine the best strategy for you?
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