PEA RIDGE, Ark. — The Pea Ridge Police Department conducted an active shooter training exercise on Tuesday.
The police department was joined by the city's fire department and paramedics in a two-day training exercise at Pea Ridge Jr. High. The training is a run-through of an active shooter situation, made to be as realistic as possible. According to Chief Lynn Hahn, the officers would be using sim guns and blanks to simulate a realistic situation.
"We've trained for entry into these buildings our Police Department is prepared for entry into these buildings we have keys to all of our schools," said Lt. John Langham. "That is something that we've been preparing for many years"
The training served as a way for officers to learn how to handle new tactics in these situations, and as a refresher course for both new and old officers.
"Any time we have new officers come into the department, fire or police, we need to make sure we get them to the training," said Mayor Jackie Crabtree. "So they know what everybody is expected to do, what is expected of them"
Pea Ridge has three dedicated resource officers, but at Monday's School board meeting, Chief Hahn states that all 15 officers in the Pea Ridge Police Department try to assist the schools. It's a part of a city-wide effort to keep their schools safe.
"We are doing the very best we can with the school district to make sure our students here in Pea Ridge are safe they feel safe and they're in a safe environment," said Mayor Crabtree.
Pea Ridge also had neighboring Police Departments join in on the training exercises. Bella Vista attended Tuesday's first day of training, and according to Lt. Langham, Little Flock would join on Thursday's last day of training.
"We would expect in an incident like this that these would be the agencies that would be immediately joining us to assist us," said Langham. "We wanted them involved in our training"
Considering recent events, city officials understand how the idea of active shooter training could be scary, but safety is at the top of their minds.
"This is the kind of training we hope we never have to use but at the same time we want to be prepared in case we ever have to use it we don't want to be caught unprepared I'm like some places that we've seen in the country," said Lt. Langham. "I think that it is kind of a scary thing for parents to even think about us doing this kind of training, but I think parents want to know that we're doing this kind of training. They should know that we are preparing, and we are planning for that moment that nobody wants to think about, nobody wants to talk about."
"It's a positive for our community and it's positive for me and it puts lets me know they've got the initiative to get things done," said Mayor Crabtree. "It's not just something they're being told to do they are actually doing it themselves and getting things done"
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