Bay County Sheriff’s Office offering free active-shooter response training to schools, churches, businesses
/BAY COUNTY, MI – The Bay County Sheriff’s Office is offering area organizations training on how to respond to active-shooter situations, free of charge.
Earlier this year, Sheriff Troy R. Cunningham and three deputies underwent two-day training sessions to be certified as instructors in the national ALICE program. The name is a backronym for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, and Evacuate.
Bay County Sheriff Troy R. Cunningham and deputies provide ALICE training to members of the Bay County Township Officials Association.
“It’s something we’re offering for churches, schools, or businesses who want us to come out and do a security-type walkthrough,” Cunningham said. “We’ll look at the place and give pointers on how to be safer.”The instructors can do active shooter drills to best teach people within these agencies’ buildings how to avoid being victims, whether that means staying put, fleeing the area, or, as a last report, countering the threat with actions that could disrupt shooters, such as throwing scavenged objects at them.
“It’s about reducing the threat and reducing the risk to people,” Cunningham said, adding ALICE differs from other programs that may recommend hiding or locking down. “We want (people) to be prepared, not scared. The idea is they’ll feel safer if they have some type of a plan.”
With ALICE, the plan is fluid, teaching people to adapt as the situation around them evolves, Cunningham said. At the same time, Cunningham doesn’t want ALICE to be seen as competing with other similar plans.
“Anything is better than nothing,” the sheriff said. “It’s another tool in the tool chest. If you’re already doing something and have a plan, that’s fantastic.”
So far, the ALICE instructors have conducted training sessions at a few nursing homes, two schools, and in the township halls of Kawkawlin, Frankenlust, and Bangor. Any organizations, private or public, that would like ALICE training can call the sheriff’s office 989-895-4050.