The Tillamook Police Department and the Department of Public Safety Standards Training (DPSST) have teamed up to bring Active Shooter Training to the Tillamook High School from 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., Thursday and Friday July 28 & 29.
This course is designed enhance the collaboration and teamwork between your First Responders (Law Enforcement, Fire & EMS) as they implement proactive survival strategies and response to violent intruder or active shooter incidents.
It is also designed to show potential gaps in how they respond and handle these types of situations to make sure that they will minimize the loss of life or injury in the event something like this does ever happen.
The overall goal of the type of training is to provide First Responders with real survival-enhancing options for saving lives in those critical moments when a violent situation begins until the threat(s) is stopped.
Moments that have no room for mistakes or hesitation in responders efforts to protect human life at all costs.
During this training simunition rounds will be used along with alarms, other distracting noises, and role players. If you are in the area, you will see First Responder vehicles in the parking lot, don’t be alarmed, all is okay, we are just training.
Your Tillamook Police Department is working closely with all First Responders in Tillamook County, including the hospital, to ensure we have a swift response to any violent intruder attack and its inevitable aftermath. Below are a few points your Tillamook Police Department wants you to know about our response to this type of tragic situation.
1. We train for these types of events. Do we like the thought of ever having to use this type of training? Absolutely not, but this is the type of training necessary in case we ever must use it. It is incomprehensible to all of us that someone would want to harm our children, our loved ones. That’s why we must be ready, anticipate the next move and why we must have an effective plan for our response to save them.
2. We promise you that the officers serving in your Tillamook Police Department will not ever wait to assemble a team to go in during any violent intruder event. Every one of us carries the tools necessary to do whatever we need to do to find and stop the threat(s) and are constantly conducting realistic and high-speed training that has allowed us to develop the mindset to head into harm’s way without hesitation as each one of us arrives, even if that means we must go in a single officer at a time. We take seriously the tremendous responsibility you have placed upon us as members of your police department and understand the risk involved, risk that includes the potential loss of our own lives to protect you.
3. We work closely with the Tillamook School District and developed an open line of communication with them. We participate in and instruct ALICE (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate) drills to help prepare for the worst-case scenario. We have a full time (SRO) School Resource Officer assigned to the Tillamook School District who has a wealth of experience both in the military and municipal law enforcement and works well with teachers, youth, and administrators.
This is who we are and what we are prepared to do to protect those under our care and it is an honor for us to do so. One of the things we’ve come to appreciate about our community is the support you give us daily and your willingness to pitch in and help each other in tough times. You are resilient and caring and that’s what makes you unique and that’s why we feel blessed to be able to serve you. In the event a tragedy like this does occur, it’s in the aftermath where we will need our community to come together, to help put back shattered lives, and to help everyone heal, including ourselves. It’s truly an honor to wear this badge on our chest and the uniform patch on our sleeve that bears the name Tillamook.
For More Information Contact: Chief Raymond Rau, 503-842-2522 or email: rrau@tillamookor.gov