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Law Enforcement Train With Mock Active Shooter Scenarios At Fayetteville High School

FAYETTEVILLE (KFSM) — With school safety a growing concern across our country, local law enforcement agencies are preparing for any and all situations. It...

FAYETTEVILLE (KFSM) -- With school safety a growing concern across our country, local law enforcement agencies are preparing for any and all situations.

It's as close to a real-life active shooter situation as possible.

Fayetteville Police worked through scenarios at Fayetteville High School as if someone was inside armed with a gun on Tuesday (July 31).

This training brought in multiple departments together to plan what they would do if something like this was to ever happen.

There was one shooter, two hostages and multiple victims at the mock scenario on Tuesday (July 31) as Fayetteville Police held the first large-scale training of its kind.

“If our officers have been through it, granted in a much less stress situation, if it actually happens they`ve been there before, it will be that much less stressful, and they`ll be able to function under that stress and work well with a group in another jurisdiction,” Sergeant Anthony Murphy said.

Officers are first trained to eliminate the threat and then giving first aid to actors with gunshot victims and evacuating the wounded, which Sergeant Anthony Murphy said were done by EMS and firefighters in the past.

“This was a good eye opener for a lot of officers and Fayetteville already trains on that, so it wasn`t new to a lot of the officers in the situation. But it was good to integrate it into other jurisdictions and see how we work well with that,” he said.

President of Fayetteville school board Justin Eichmann said watching the training was an eye-opening experience.

“We need to make sure that we have a plan, have a procedure in place. That our teachers, that our staff, that our administrators would know how to quickly and efficiently help those here that would be helping us,” he said.

Fayetteville School District formed a school safety and security task force back in March.

Eichmann said some of the recommendations the task force has received are adding more school resource officers and adding a director of security. Other than Fayetteville Police, University of Arkansas Police, the Washington County Sheriff's Office, Prairie Grove Police and emergency management were all part the scenario.

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