School Shooter Vulnerability Assessment

[cleardiddion]

So, I just finished my semester today and one of my projects was to create a vulnerability assessment for my university in the case of an active shooter.

I thought I'd share it with THR since the subject of school shootings/protection at school/so on and so forth come up every so often. It's slightly gun related but mostly overall it lets you look at what sort of things you should be aware of concerning how threats affect various sort of settings and whatnot.

To give a little preview:

Executive Summary
This vulnerability assessment has been prepared under the direction of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in order to assess the organization’s vulnerability to a school shooter. It is important to assess the school’s vulnerability to a school shooter given the events that transpired at Virginia Tech on April 16, 2007.
This vulnerability assessment was developed as a tool for Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University to:
• Assess the vulnerabilities of the school’s assets such as the Lehman Building, student dorms, Alphabet Soup classrooms, and multiple other assets
• Develop possible countermeasures that would detect, deter, and delay the consequences of a school shooter to the identified assets
• Estimate the costs of implementing such countermeasures
• Improve overall security operational planning in order for the school to better protect itself from a possible school shooter
This assessment will be very useful for a broad audience within the university’s population. The assessment will benefit the university’s president along with other senior officials whose job it is to develop the assessment plans and procedures. This assessment will also benefit other officials whose job it is to conduct assessments on critical assets. Students who attend the university would also benefit from this assessment by learning how to react to such a situation. This assessment also identifies the types of information and resources that are required by a team to conduct a vulnerability assessment. There are three phases within the process of a vulnerability assessment. These three phases are pre-assessment, assessment, and post-assessment.
This assessment consists of six steps which are used in order to conduct a vulnerability assessment. These six steps are very straightforward and aid in the examination of critical assets. The six steps also aid in the identification of cost-effective countermeasures in order to guard against a school shooter. For each identified step, the objective is stated clearly, a detailed approach is explained, and examples are provided to aid in the understanding of the step.
This assessment will identify the university’s critical assets and provide recommendations on how to safeguard these assets. Any proposed countermeasures will be identified only after a cost-benefit analysis has been completed by the assessment team.

http://rapidshare.com/files/3159005...ol_Shooter_Vulnerability_Assessment.docx.html

 

[wishin]

I fully recognize the object of such a study, but in my humble opinion all schools and universities continue to be highly vulnerable to a VT type scenario simply because of the fact that very large numbers of young, UNARMED students are at the mercy of an unbalanced yet armed individual(s).

 

[Shadow 7D]

And that is the point of Students For Concealed Carry on Campus, because the unfortunate reality is that one person managed to kill to many students because of the mentality that is fostered on campus making sheep, when one person fighting back could have stopped a horrible massacre.

 

[Santee]

Firearms on Campus

It amazes me that people listen to and vote for politicians who pass more and more so called "gun control" measures. There are 2 million or more crimes stopped each year by private citizens with firearms, most without firing a single shot, just the presence of a firearm deters most criminals. And yet, people allow themselves to be sheep, disarmed and vulnerable to any criminal whether armed or not.

One of the most dangerous places in our society for crime is an unprotected home. The most dangerous place for mass killings is "gun free zones." When will people learn, that, if you do not prepare to protect yourself, then you prepare yourself to be a victim? Each person is responsible for their and their family's safety. The police are not responsible for your safety, they are responsible for drawing the outline in chalk and trying to figure out who did it.

In the case of a shooter on a school or college campus, the first thing the police do is assure their own safety. They set up a perimeter, to control the pubic, while the shooter continues to kill and maim unarmed students and teachers. When they finally move in, the shooter continues to control the events which follow, fight, flight, freeze or to kill themselves.

The answer to this problem is simple. Arm teachers in schools, arm everyone who can be armed on college campuses. :banghead:But stupid continues to be the rule throughout most of our nation. There are children and young adults, unprotected, by law, waiting like sheep for the nut, or zealot, that slaughters.

 

[essayons21]

Part of that risk assessment course should have been to not publish your vulnerability assessment.

Overall, a good assessment though.

Does Embry-Riddle have a Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness BA?

Have you submitted this to the university department that handles campus safety? If not, you should. I highly doubt they have done any real risk assessment or vulnerability analysis.

 

[Mr.Davis]

Hopefully someday we'll succeed in convincing our politicians of this basic fact:

GUN FREE = TARGET FULL

 

[GEM]

Says you have to be a premium member to download the file. Can you post a link to a PDF or something else?

BTW, many departments have moved beyond the containment to active shooter engagement procedures.

 

[Ragnar Danneskjold]

In the case of a shooter on a school or college campus, the first thing the police do is assure their own safety. They set up a perimeter, to control the pubic, while the shooter continues to kill and maim unarmed students and teachers. When they finally move in, the shooter continues to control the events which follow, fight, flight, freeze or to kill themselves.

That is no longer the accepted police doctrine. MANY departments have changed their protocols for active shooters specifically following the events of Columbine and VT. The most recently accepted tactic within most modern departments is to engage the shooter as soon as possible, with patrol rifles or shotguns if available. In my own police academy, I was taught that the proper response for a school shooter is to get a small group of officers, usually the first car or two to respond, and actively pursue and negate the threat, with the defensive perimeter being a secondary objective.

 

[cleardiddion]

Part of that risk assessment course should have been to not publish your vulnerability assessment.

Overall, a good assessment though.

Does Embry-Riddle have a Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness BA?

Well, this was just an academic assessment so I'm not too worried.
And yes, ERAU does have a BS in Homeland Security.
Ranked #1 in the nation, with the national accreditor as one of my professors.

 

[essayons21]

Ranked #1 in the nation

By who?

I was under the impression that the BS and BA HS 4-year programs hadn't been in existence long enough, nor are there enough accredited programs to conduct a ranking.

 

[cleardiddion]

The program has been in development for the past four years.
It produces the highest number of graduates, the greatest number of students in homeland security coops/internships, highest number of accredited programs, and has the largest number of students in such a program.
Plus, it's the model by which other programs are being modeled after with a national accrediting board looking to make it the standard.

 

[52grain]

My alma mater (Iowa State) was the last school in the Big 12 to allow campus police officers to carry on campus. The plan for dealing with a shooter was to call in city police while the campus police went to the office to get their guns out of the safe. Never mind that the campus police actually have more rigorous training than the city police. (At least so the media says.)

The state legislature repealed the law preventing law enforcement from carrying guns on the state university campuses in the aftermath of Virginia Tech, nevermind that there was a shooting on the Iowa campus in the early 90s.

Edit to add: Iowa was the last school in the Big 10 (11) conference to allow the campus police to carry guns as well. Not sure about Northern Iowa.