Behind the Badge
The slideshow stopped on a photo of a grizzly bear family in a forest.
“Look at the cute bears,” said La Habra Sgt. Jim Tigner as many in the audience tilted their heads in confusion.
Cute, yes, but what was this image doing in a public safety presentation?
Tigner then flipped to the next slide showing the mama grizzly mid-roar looking ready to maul anyone within swiping distance.
“We tell our teachers: This is what you turn into if someone is threatening you and your students,” Tigner said, pointing to the bear. “It’s pretty sad that we have to have this conversation at all, but it’s the reality.”
La Habra teachers, in recent years, have been trained on how to handle a gunman shooting up a school campus.
Teachers are taught to first try and get out safely with all their students. If that’s not an option, they are told to hide.
But if the shooter is busting into the classroom, teachers are trained to fight with the ferocity of a grizzly bear protecting its young.
“We teach them to post up near the door and grab something to use as a weapon — scissors, a fire extinguisher, a chair,” Tigner said. “We are talking life and death scenarios here. You can use violence to end violence if you are protecting life.”
La Habra PD Sgt. Jim Tigner talks to attendees of a community meeting on emergency preparedness on how to survive an active shooter incident.
Photo by Steven Georges/Behind the Badge OC
These are valuable emergency preparedness lessons leaders at the police department say also can benefit the community as a whole because these tragedies can happen anywhere.
Mass public shootings have happened across the country in work places, movie theaters and shopping malls, among other places, so La Habra PD wants to ensure their community is ready.
“We don’t believe anything like this is coming to La Habra, but we always hope for the best and prepare for the worst,” said Police Chief Jerry Price.
Dozens of residents attended the Sept. 28 Community Meeting on Emergency Preparedness at the La Habra Community Center, which included active shooter training for residents and an update on invasive mosquitos found in the city from the Orange County Vector Control District.
(The city currently has no human infections of the West Nile Virus, according to a Vector Control spokeswoman.)
La Habra Police Chief Jerry Price welcomes guests attending an emergency preparedness community meeting at the La Habra Community Center with topics that included the West Nile virus as well as how to survive an active shooter incident.
Photo by Steven Georges/Behind the Badge OC
The active shooter presentation, led by Tigner and Lt. Adam Foster, covered Run, Hide, Fight and also updated the community on how the police force is better equipped to handle such situations.
La Habra PD has outfitted its patrol officers with special helmets and external bullet-proof vests, which they can use as added protection over the vests they already wear under their uniforms.
The department also recently issued tourniquets to every patrol officer, which can be a great tool to help shooting victims until medical aid arrives.
In an active shooter situation, “you may see the first officers on scene step over the injured, not because we don’t care, because our first goal is to put the threat down, then help the injured,” Foster said. “Studies have found that if we can get medical help to victims within 60 minutes, their chance of survival is high for these types of injuries.”
La Habra PD Lt. Adam Foster talks about how officers respond when an active shooter call is made during a community meeting on emergency preparedness at the La Habra Community Center.
Photo by Steven Georges/Behind the Badge OC
A swift response to the threat is the primary goal, police added, because these attacks are quick and usually devastating, which is why residents are encouraged to arm themselves with information and practical training.
“An active shooter situation is over in a matter of seconds,” Tigner said. “They are coming in to injure or kill as many people as they can. We don’t have the luxury of time.”
The strategy outlined by the Department of Homeland Security and La Habra PD:
Run: If you hear gunshots and can get out, grab as many people as you can and run. Leave your belongings behind, and when you’re safe, call 911 and provide as many details as you can.
Hide: If you are stuck in a room, do your best to hide from the attacker. Lock the door, or block it with a heavy object, turn off the lights and turn off your cell phone.
Fight: If you are trapped and the shooter is coming, take a few seconds and come up with a plan. Designate a small group of people to flank the door where the shooter might enter and send the rest in the room to line up in the safest place possible..
Everyone should be out of the “kill zone”, which is the area directly in the shooter’s field of vision, when he or she enters the room. When the shooter crosses the door threshold, the designated fighters should, without hesitation, jump on the attacker. A tactical advantage is literally a split second or two.
Designate one person to get close and wrap his/her arms around the gun, careful to stay behind the muzzle. Another person can target the knee, or other vulnerable areas, to take the shooter down and restrain them until authorities arrive.
“You have to commit,” Tigner told the audience. “It’s all about mental preparation. If you’re prepared, you’ll have organized anxiety – which is OK. When you’re not prepared, it’s panic and chaos and you lessen your chances of surviving”
La Habra PD also showed videos that reviewed various tactics for surviving an active shooter situation. Tigner demonstrated how to restrain a shooter with a rifle versus a hand gun.
When it was over, many in the audience said they appreciated the police offering the educational meeting to better prepare residents.
“I think the smartest thing I heard tonight was, ‘Don’t panic, be empowered,’” said resident Gloria Rossel, 66. “I have never heard that before. Instead of being a victim, use your head and think.”
Resident Scott Crockett, 52, agreed learning to be proactive was the greatest takeaway.
“You have to do something in that situation,” he said. “As community members, we really are the first responders and we need to realize that.”
For more information on active shooter preparedness visit:
https://www.dhs.gov/active-shooter-preparedness
La Habra PD Sgt. Jim Tigner introduces the topic of Active Shooter during a community meeting on emergency preparedness at the La Habra Community Center.
Photo by Steven Georges/Behind the Badge OC
