ALERRT program supplies multiple emergency agencies with same ‘playbook’
Every high school football program has a playbook.
It’s plays an important role in the success of the team, as it contains descriptions of all the plays and strategies to be used by a team. And it’s the responsibility of every player on the roster to study, memorize and carryout those plays to the best of their abilities.
The same team playbook concept carries over to emergency responders – law enforcement, medical, fire, dispatch – if and when the need arises.
Last week, at Brandon Valley High School, more than 40 law enforcement officers from Brandon and surrounding agencies in South Dakota, as well as dispatch, EMT and fire department personnel came together for 16 hours of Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT).
Many of the same law enforcement officers that took part in last week’s training, have participated in previous ALERRT trainings held in Brandon in both 2023 and 2020. This year’s session differed in that it focused on multiple agencies working together in emergency situations, such as an active shooter, to ensure the best outcome.
Luke Fleener, who is the Webster County Sheriff in Fort Dodge, Iowa, also serves as an adjunct for the ALERRT program. He was one of several adjuncts who led two, 16-hour training sessions in Brandon last week.
Prior mass shootings, such as the ones that occurred at Columbine High School in 1999 and Aurora, Colo., in 2012, keyed in on the need for joint agencies training together.
“We met after Columbine and law enforcement took a pretty big role in changing our way that we train,”
Fleener said. “Ever since then, we’ve been very good about training law enforcement to quickly respond and stop the killing immediately upon arrival.”
The incident in Aurora, he added, showed that training without local fire, EMS and dispatchers, “Our well intentions of saving lives and doing our very best can sometimes be hindered by not having good communication and training together.”
That all changed in 2018 when ALERRT implemented the multi-agency training curriculum.
“It’s one of very few courses in the United States that allows law enforcement, fire, EMS and dispatchers all to be on the same page for 16 hours and work off the same playbook to achieve our operational goals, which is, number one, stop the killing, and number two, immediately stop the dying of the people affected by the event that just took place” Fleener said. “The last part of that is rapid casualty evac, getting them to the next highest level care that we possibly can as quickly as possible.”
As always, Fleener said the goal is to hopefully never having to use this training in a real-life scenario.
“But if something tragic does happen in this community, everybody has the playbook and we all know what were supposed to do and what role we’re supposed to fill if that happens,” he said.
Brandon Police Chief Jamie Steffel and several of the officers on the Brandon department took part in the training. Five of the department’s officers became certified trainers last week. They assisted the adjuncts and practice taught the course.
“As Luke said, we pray that we never have to use this knowledge,” Steffel said. “We have a great town, a great school district and great people, but unfortunately, bad things can happen no matter where you life, so it’s important for us, our officers and other officers in the area and all the agencies we talked about to be prepared and practice train for these things.”
Steffel said it’s important for his department to continue ALERRT trainings.
“Things change. Personnel changes,” he said. “Sometimes we have new officers come on and they might not have been through this, and then there’s a progression of these courses.”
Prior courses have only involved law enforcement.
“It’s important for us all to get together, train together, know each other, understand what everybody’s doing,” he said.
Seth Goembel is a three-year member of Brandon’s volunteer fire department. When the training was brought up a recent meeting of the department, he and Josh Sneller stepped up to attend. He admits, it’s not a training he ever anticipated going through.
“You don’t join the fire department to come to an active-shooter training, exactly,” he said.
Goembel does, however, describe the training as “valuable.”
“It’s very valuable with the climate nowadays, because you never know, and I think Brandon’s a big enough community where it’s a bigger risk than some other places,” Goembel said.
Minutes after running through the first of four response simulations, Goembel admits his blood was still pumping through his veins.
“Being in command for that simulation, it puts into perspective how many things have to be going through your mind and then you have to be two, three steps ahead to be thinking about what might be coming up next,” he said.
Goembel said he and Sneller would be following up with Chief Robert Dykstra and training chiefs on the firefighter roster to share what they learned at the training.
Following hours of training in a classroom setting, participants went through a set of four scenarios that required emergency response from the multiple agencies. Fleener said it’s not uncommon for the first run to last 20 to 40 minutes from the time it starts until the last casualty is out the door.
“By the end of the day today, that number will be shortened down to under 10 minutes,” he said. “Just by repetition and working together and doing the very best we can to save lives.”
As the stopwatch showed, the first run took 16 minutes, and that time received high praise from the trainers.
“We use schools, we use businesses, we use whatever buildings are available to us. The truth of the matter is these types of attacks can happen anywhere. They’ve happened at banks. They’ve happened in outdoor venues like concerts. They’ve happened at football games. They’ve happened at schools, obviously. So, we prepare for it. It doesn’t really matter the venue. It depends on us being together on those three operational goals,” Fleener said.
Kelsey Hoff, who is stepping into the position as assistant principal at Brandon Valley Middle School, served as a victim during last week’s training. She coined her role as “a real learning experience.
“I hope it’s something that we never have to experience as a community, as a school, but just knowing that the training is happening with our EMS, with our dispatch, with our police, everybody’s working together to make sure they are prepared to help us be the safest that we absolutely can be and help as many as we can if the tragedy occurs brings some comfort,” she said.
ALERRT trainings are done all across the country, Fleener said. About 40 training sessions are held each week.
“As we sit here now, there are 39 other classes going on somewhere in the United States, and next week the same thing will happen,” he said. “They have a huge distribution center with the kits that you see us using and all the stuff we’re using today is shipped here at no cost to the community. The training is free and the Training Center provides payment for these instructors to come and do it.”