Program puts Jasper law enforcement on ALERRT
DISPATCHER: "All units, we have a report of an active shooter at the school campus. All units respond."
By JIMMY GALVAN Managing Editor

Newsboy photo/Jimmy Galvan JASPER COUNTY OFFICERS receive their final briefing from their instructor prior to the program exercise.

It's a call that no parent or law enforcement officer wants to hear but in this day and age, it's one that is becoming more and more common.

In an effort to prepare law enforcement officers for these horrifying events, a program is taking steps to give officers an assist to deal with these situations.

The Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT) mission is to teach law enforcement officers, specifically the true first responders, to safely and effectively respond to - address - and stop an active shooter, that is someone who is actively assaulting people with a weapon.

Last week, ALERRT put together a program at Jasper High School to help train local officers in the program.

"It's extremely beneficial because if we don't train with other agencies that we might respond with. We might not work as well as a unit if we didn't have that training," said Jasper Police Chief Todd Hunter.

During this latest training session, officers from the Jasper Police, Jasper Sheriff's Department, Kirbyville Police Department and a school resource officer from the Vidor Police Department participate in the training session.

The exercise at the school was held Sunday, March 9 that featured an active shooter with police responding to the scene. Police were run through different scenarios and all the action was filmed so the officers could see their reactions in the exercise.

"It teaches the officers to work together in a three-man group to go into a school or business or any type of setting that has an active shooter," Hunter said. "It teaches these officers to quickly react and enter the building and come in contact with the threat that is in the school or business."

The training exercise, which was held in Jasper, was funded through a grant obtained by the Jasper Police Department.

"We earned this grant a year ago and we were able to train half of our officers and this was the second part of the grant process to get the rest of the officers trained," Hunter said.

Hunter said that 98 percent of the Jasper Police force is training in the program and was opened up so that the Jasper County Sheriff's office and surrounding agencies could gain the valuable training as well.

ALERRT is a partnership project of Texas State University-San Marcos, the city of San Marcos, Texas and Hays County.

This training is made possible in part through funding from the Texas Governor's Office Criminal Justice Division, the US Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Assistance; and Department of Homeland Security Office of Grants and Training.

"We would hope to never have to use this type of training but it is something that we need to learn," Hunter said. "If we don't train for it, and this happened, then we have failed."