Organization and communication may not be the sexy sides of police work that get featured in television shows and movies.
But they could be the most important when police officers and firefighters respond to mass shootings and other disasters.
Throughout a report released Wednesday on Aurora’s response to the 2012 movie theater shooting, a communication breakdown between the city’s police and fire departments is repeatedly mentioned. Police officers and firefighters did not know how to communicate with each other of hundreds of blood-soaked and frightened people running from the Century Aurora 16 theater.
The 168-page report has dozens of recommendations for police and fire departments, telling them how they should respond and what equipment they need to deal with a mass shooting. For some departments, the recommendations already are in place. For others, implementing them would require time and money.
The report raises one question: If two departments in the same city with the same bosses could not communicate during the largest mass shooting in U.S. history, then what barriers face the Denver metro area’s police and fire departments who work across multiple jurisdictions?
Take the South Metro Fire Rescue Authority, which covers a territory that includes five police jurisdictions and two school districts.
Steve Standridge, South Metro’s emergency manager, said the Aurora movie theater shooting followed by the 2013 shooting at Arapahoe High School created a sense of urgency for developing plans for mass casualty incidents.
“It’s more about the planning process and the relationships you develop and understanding how each other works,” Standridge said.
Since then, South Metro has worked with other agencies to create detailed plans on how they would respond to a crisis at specific businesses, schools and other public places.
A lot of thought was given to the first and second waves of responders arriving at the scene and where they would stage. At the Aurora movie theater, ambulances could not reach shooting victims because police cars blocked access.
“That was part of the challenge we have, was the different priorities,” Standridge said. “The police are going to go in and neutralize the shooter.”
The plans, which could be called up on computers installed in emergency vehicles, include details on where command posts could be established, staging areas for backup officers when they arrive, rallying points for specialized units such as SWAT and bomb squads, and zones for ambulances to pick up casualties, Standridge said.
“It’s coordinated,” he said. “Not haphazard.”
Since the Aurora response report was released, police, sheriff and fire departments in Colorado — and across the United States — have been digesting the found inside its 168 pages.
“I’ve seen it on a couple of chief’s desks,” said Mark Techmeyer, a spokesman for the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office. “Absolutely, we look at what other agencies went through. A lot of us assisted Aurora, and we learned a lot as we went through it.”
Representatives from several agencies told The Denver Post they will read the report and look for practices that would fit with their agencies.
One recommendation would allow dispatchers to make suggestions to commanders at the scene.
South Metro’s dispatchers already are allowed to do that, and they attend training exercises with fire and police chiefs, said Paul Smith, the executive director of communications.
“We highly encourage our dispatchers to think,” Smith said. Those who only are allowed to follow by-the-book policies “would never be able to respond to an Aurora-like event. They’re set up to not be as successful.”
In some cases, the recommendations may be too expensive or not suitable for smaller departments.
“We’re a small, suburban police department,” said Kelli Narde, a Littleton spokeswoman. “Comparing Littleton police to Aurora police is hard. We have different budgets and different issues.”
Larger departments already use or are well on their way to meeting some of the report’s recommendations. For example, the response report suggested that Aurora police expand its officers’ emergency medical training.
The Denver Police Department recently received a grant to supply every officer with a gunshot trauma kit, said Matt Murray, the department’s chief of staff. Denver Health Medical Center will train the officers to use the kits.
The report also recommended buying body armor that can protect officers from shooters using high-powered rifles.
In Denver, each of the police department’s six districts has enough gear to outfit a four-person team that would enter a building to take on a shooter, Murray said.
The Aurora report included at least one recommendation that several departments said they will not adopt anytime soon — drones. A drone could have helped provide overhead images at the movie theater, especially if the event had lasted longer, the report said.
“We don’t have any drones,” Narde said. “That’s for sure.”
Narde said the Littleton Police Department does not have plans to buy drones. Neither do Denver police or the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, according to their spokesmen.
But the biggest takeaway for area first-responders will be the importance of planning and training together. At the movie theater, Aurora police and fire were first on the scene. But officers from Adams County, Arapahoe County, Denver, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives soon joined them.
That’s why multiagency training such as Wednesday’s Rocky Vista mass casualty exercise in Parker is so important, Standridge said.
The purpose? Five agencies want to practice scene safety, victim evacuation and interagency communication.
Noelle Phillips: 303-954-1661, nphillips@denverpost.com or twitter.com/Noelle_Phillips
