Designing an Active Shooter Plan

Various online resources are available to design an active shooter plan, including the FBI Active Shooter Resources (https://www.fbi.gov/about/partnerships/office-of-partner-engagement/active-shooter-resources) web page and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Active Shooter: How to Respond booklet (https://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/active_shooter_booklet.pdf).

The strategy includes approaches like the following:  

• Premises security - fences, locked doors, entry card systems, alarm systems.
• Evacuation plan - particularly evacuation routes.
• Good lighting systems - easier to observe intruder and for employees to see what is going on.
• Hallways and doorways - wide enough for evacuation.
• Having visible security measures - such measures serve as a deterrent, such as security officials.
• Training - most commonly once a year active shooter response training. 

This article is part of our February 2023 Newsletter.

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