Active Shooter Response Training For Long Valley Police

LONG VALLEY, NJ — To prepare for the upcoming school year, members of the Washington Township Police Department attended a summer training on how to protect, fight, and survive in the aftermath of an active shooter situation.

The training took place in the empty halls of West Morris Central High School on June 22 and included building clearing as well as force-on-force scenarios involving role players from local SWAT teams and former military personnel.

According to Lieutenant Chris Bratus, the police department trains on squad levels all year for a possible response to an active shooter or active killer-type incident, in addition to full-day training for all officers during the summer.

We do a full day of training during the summer for several reasons. The most obvious is that the school buildings are empty, which allows us access to training in a real-world environment, and for what honestly is the worst-case scenario," Bratus said.

The day of summer training consists of tactical training, bleeding and trauma management training, and incident command.

Long Valley police officers complete scenarios involving simulations, allowing them to train in the most realistic way possible. Officers in force-on-force training interact with role players who play innocents, victims, and shooters.

"We try to create the most stressful environment we can manufacture to help our officers improve their tactics and decision-making under stress so they can be successful when responding to any type of critical incident," Bratus said.

With the new school year beginning next month, parents are encouraged to support school safety initiatives by reporting suspicious events to the police or school administrators, such as concerning social media content.

Bratus explained that the police department maintains a close relationship with the local school districts.

"We have an excellent relationship with the administration as well as the principals and staff of every school. They provide us with anything we ask to assist in better preparing our officers for this type of incident. Both districts are very proactive when it comes to the security and safety of their staff, students and visitors," Bratus said.

Just over four years ago, the Washington Township School District decided to hire school resource officers to increase safety measures. Since then, the school community has made an effort to teach the students the roles that the police have in our community.

"Our district's initial SRO officers, coupled with our current serving SROs, Adam Feichter and Rob Oranchak, have fostered an impressionable sense of safety and security for students and staff alike," Flocktown-Kossmann School teacher Julie Martire said.