Columbine, Essay Example

The events that transformed during the day of April 20, 1999 at Columbine High School remained in history as one of the deadliest school shooting in American history. Until recently the events that transpired in the little town of Connecticut, the police procedure for school shootings was outrageously flawed. In the morning where Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold carried out their premeditated shootings on the students that bullied them and the staff they did not like, the police arrived at the school within minutes. They weren’t alone as SWAT teams, armed guards, and other federal law enforcement would arrive later. However, what the criticism of the police was, was their protocols that lead to increased deaths that could have possibly been prevented.

The critics of the police officers and the SWAT response that day are soundly heard by not only fellow police officers, public, and other critics. “Police involved in the investigation are most sensitive to criticism that they did not do enough in the first half hour of the shooting rampage to stem the carnage and confront the gunmen.”(Freeze, 2009) The first officers on the scene had never trained for what transpired at Columbine High School. The first officers that exchanged fire with Harris stopped after a few exchanges as Harris ran backed in the school and the officer called for backup. After reporting that were shootings going on in the school it was found that no shots have even touched the officer’s cars. As the officers received backup additional shots were heard, and the police decided to set up a perimeter outside of the school. Outside the school were calculated 1000 law enforcement agents, with over 1000 students still trapped inside. Four hours later the SWAT team would arrive to rescue the people that were hidden. As they waited, ten additional people were killed in the library at the hands of Harris and Klebold. As time moved forward, the police officers decided to use a fire truck for a barrier however, they spent multiple minutes deciding who would drive. Only minutes later the twosome decided to commit suicide, as police officers still not move inside the building.

The police protocol prior to the shootings was to shoot to kill, without taking hostages or demands. The police officers were trained to shoot and eventually stop waiting for elite members to show up to help. In that time since the first shots were reported and when SWAT arrived on the scene it reportedly took them 45 minutes to assemble and go in. The body count when SWAT finally went in the school was twelve, excluding Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold who committed suicide. However, SWAT, “took several hours more to secure the place, moving methodically from room by room. One of the wounded, teacher Dave Sanders, slowly bled to death.” (USA Today, 2009) The SWAT team instead of sending all units to enter the school instead directed a team to search for the two killers cars in the parking lot. During the search, one of the officers saw one of the multiple signs that Coach Sanders posted to indicate he was bleeding to death, however the commanding officer of the SWAT team chose to ignore, and he died. “Police defended their handling of the tragedy, saying that by the time they arrived the gunfire had stopped, and because they believed there was no active shooter in the building, they decided to wait for the elite team.”(USA Today, 2009)

Although it is clear that if they would know what they know now, as in everyone in horrible situations they would have done things differently. However, the actions of the police and the SWAT teams are forever question in what could have been prevented in Littleton, Colorado at Columbine High School. The IMS used was for the local law enforcement to call on the elite teams of the SWAT unit. However, that is far as went in incident management as it seen as no one was in control or knew what to do in the situation to care for the wounded, and adequately detained the shooters. Their use of IMS was not at all successful as the killers ended up killing themselves, thus preventing anymore killing in the school. The police handled numerous procedures wrong, including adequately taken down Harris when they had the chance. Not only did they stop to wait for SWAT but, when SWAT arrived they did not go into the school for another 90 minutes, without trying to set up communications or negotiate with the killers. The number of law enforcement officers outside the school was about equivalent to the number of innocent students in the high school. They didn’t have a plan in place to deal with the shooters, protect the innocent, or help the wounded. Instead of trying to help, they ignored and went into another irrelevant mission that impeded the death of Coach Sanders.

Since Columbine, there have been several more school shootings more deadly than the next, and police and other officials have been trying to formulate plans to prevent and detained the problem from going any further. This following protocol for police has been formulated in order to prevent the next “Columbine” from contributing to the multiple deaths of innocent people. This protocol will help to tell them how to respond to and handle the call, with the primary concern being, as always, to save as many lives as possible while putting as few lives at risk as possible. One of the first steps from lessons learned is to actively training police officers in learning to effectively take down the shooter. In situations that happened rapidly, a fast response is needed in order to lessen the number of individuals either killed or maimed. In post-Columbine procedures, the new protocol will call for the first officer on the scene to move towards the sound of gunfire to try and neutralize the shooter. The responding police officers will lockdown the school, with a group of police officers ready to advance towards the shooter in a secure diamond shaped formation. Police must entered the school building as fast as possible once the report of the first shootings is either heard or reported. Once special or elite teams arrive on the scene it is essential to let them take control. If that is not at all possible the steps outlined in the IMS is take the aggressive approach in locating the shooter(s) in order to detain the shooting. Try to get as much information about the situation from witnesses as possible. Try to communicate with employees and other school staff on the possible location of the shooter(s). Police officers must communicate with each other to assess the situation clearly, and decide if the aggressive, rapid tactics are necessary. Law enforcement must quickly assemble the appropriate teams and deploy them as soon as possible. The next step is to apply the necessary force in order to subdue shooter(s). Once they have been subdued is to locate the wounded and other victims. Another team will move in and make sure that the building is secure, sweeping for other weapons, bombs, or potential victims and shooters. Other officers must contact the correct resources including, Fire Department, Emergency Services, Air Support, and other services for particular situations. Once the situation is secure, and the wounded and others have been rescued it is wise to evaluate the situation, and leave the rest to special units that arrive. This protocol is useful in protecting innocents and effectively detaining the situation in order to prevent as many casualties as possible in these unpredictable situations.

References

“Columbine report faults police.” (2001). CNN. Retrieved from http://archives.cnn.com/2001/US/05/17/columbine.report/

Freeze, Jacob. “Inching Towards Columbine.” (2009). Talk Left. Retrieved from http://www.talkleft.com/story/2009/4/4/15239/64789/Diary/Inching-Toward-Columbine

“Shoot first: Columbine tragedy transformed police tactics.” (2009). USA Today. Retrieved from http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-04-19-columbine-police-tactics_N.htm?csp=34