Responding to a Mass Shooting

ASIS Rochester thanks Retired Chief Kristin Zinman for her excellent presentation on Responding to a Mass Shooting. Ms. Zinman’s passionate presentation covered many aspects on this topic – with the goal to inform and prevent future mass shootings.  Much of her presentation came from her direct involvement as Police Chief in Aurora, IL where a mass shooting killing five individuals occurred at the Pratt Company. Video taken from this horrific experience provided a chronological look at how the events unfolded, employee actions, and the response of law enforcement including the many challenges faced. Ms. Zinman was able to speak not only to the actions to remove the threat but the thought process and emotional impact surrounding this event.

 Chief Zinman presenting

There were many takeaways – outlined are just a few key ones here without getting deep into the specifics:

• As with many of these mass shootings, there was a clear indication and foreshadowing ahead of time that this could occur. Ms. Zinman stressed the importance of not only vetting and paying attention to early signals and messages, but in creating a culture that fosters awareness, recognition and communication of such signals.
• Roles – it is easy to get caught up in the emotions of the moment and want to spring to action, but it is so important to understand everyone’s role ahead of time and fulfil that role during the crisis. It is also important to allow some ad hoc roles to emerge to cover overlooked details or new problems created by the crisis.
• Training – it was very obvious that Law Enforcement’s training was critical and it is what the officers fell back on when attacked and during the pursuit of the active shooter.
• Technology – in the end, technology used by law enforcement helped to end the threat.
• Simple things matter – such as numbering and marking the doors and having this information available to first responders.
• Take the time to care for those involved in the event. You are never sure who has been scarred emotionally by such an event and needs extra help.

There were over 80 attendees at the ASIS Rochester special event including 15 guests from Law Enforcement. Thanks to those that attended and to the Corporate Sponsors that made it possible to host Chief Zinman. A special thank you goes to the Strong National Museum of play for hosting the event.

Sponsors:

• Axis Communications
• Convergint Technologies
• Doyle Security
• ESL Federal Credit Union
• Genetec
• Security 101
• Technical Systems Group (TSG Security)
• Armor Security (Coffee and Donuts)
• Strong National Museum of Play

 Chief Zinman with area Law Enforcement attendees