With nearly 20 injured in a recent New Orleans Mother’s Day parade shooting and the horrifying shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School far from being forgotten, it has become important for people to know what to do in the case of a mass shooting.
To East Lansing police Capt. Jeff Murphy, it’s apparent that mass shootings have become more prevalent in recent years. This has made the importance of relying on not only the police enforcement, but also the public, to know how to respond to emergencies like these much more important.
“We try to see how some of those things happen, so if it ever happened here, we would be more prepared,” Murphy said.
If a shooting were to ever take place in East Lansing, Murphy said civilians should get out of the area as quickly as possible.
“These type of people want to harm as many people as possible, as quick as possible,” Murphy said.
Being prepared to look for escape routes is another way to prepare in the case of a shooting, he said
“Police officers do it all the time,” he continued. “When we go to calls we look for what might happen and what we are going to do if somebody runs out of the house or somebody runs out with a gun.”
If getting out of the area is not an option, the next best option is to hide behind some kind of hard object or a place where people can secure themselves, he said.
When big events take place in town, police enforcement has to plan ahead in the case of some kind of emergency. When the East Lansing Art Festival took place last weekend, Murphy said that the East Lansing Police Department, or ELPD, had to talk to the organizers ahead of time to make sure they had a plan.
When it comes to MSU police, tactics for emergencies are similar to those for ELPD.
According to MSU police Capt. Penny Fischer, MSU police aims to understand the mindset of someone who would commit this type of crime as well as making sure MSU police officers are trained to be at national standard in terms of response.
“All our officers and surrounding agencies have been trained in the same situation,” Fisher said. “We all understand how it works together.”
Fisher said they have trained for evacuation, sheltering in place and securing in place in the case of a violent incident, within both large venues and everyday buildings. The officers are trained to control the scene and manage the threat.
Fisheries and wildlife senior, Brie-Anne Breton, feels as though when she’s in classes at MSU and around faculty that she would feel protected if an active shooter were to enter a building.
“A lot of the classes I’m in, the teachers are just kind of on top of everything that happens, even the little things in class,” Breten said. “I have no doubt that they would be quick to act and try to keep us all calm.”
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