Harrisville Police Department is presenting a “Civilian Response to Active Shooter Events Course” to be held on Thursday, March 15th, 2018, from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at Harrisville City Hall (363 W. Independence Blvd. Harrisville, UT 84404).
This training will be roughly an hour long with a question and answer time for the last half hour. The Civilian Response to Active Shooter Events Course or CRASE Course is designed and built on the AVOID, DENY, DEFEND (ADD) strategy that provides strategies, guidance and a proven plan for surviving an active shooter event.
This training is open to all Harrisville City residents, Harrisville business leaders, and City employees. Although, if Pleasant View or North Ogden residents wanted to attend, they are more than welcome so as long as there is room.
Detective Gammell, who will instruct this CRASE Course says, “This idea is not our idea. It came to fruition when the Columbine school shooting happened. The government came and said we need to get a program together. The program ALERT came through Texas State University.”
ALERT stands for Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training. If you’re interested in more information about that, please go to: www.alert.org.
“Inside of this training we do law enforcement training for active shooter situations with schools and businesses. There are a certain number of instructors per state; and I am one of those instructors,” says Detective Gammell.
He also adds, “The civilian part of it we will be teaching. Most of the active shooters aren’t really at schools but businesses. Schools are a very small percent.”
We learn that this course was brought out to help employees, employers and civilians on how to avoid (ADD) a threatening situation. Detective Gammell is planning to talk about this and give guidance for different safety measures.
When asked if this is something Harrisville City has done before, Detective Gammell says, “This is new here but not new across the United States.”
Usually this specific course is a 4-hour training, but it will be cut down to an hour and half to offer the most important information needed.
One important piece advice from Detective Gammell is, “The more knowledge you can have can make you not be a victim. We want to be more prepared here in Harrisville.”
Detective Gammell of the Harrisville City Police will oversee this course. You may reach him at 801-782-4100 or ggammell@cityofharrisville.com
