Learning to respond

MERCER COUNTY - Law enforcement officials across the country have adopted much more aggressive ways to respond to active-school shootings since the infamous Columbine High School massacre that unfolded almost two decades ago.

Training for police officers and sheriff's deputies this week in St. Henry illustrated that shift in response by emphasizing that a quick response is essential to quell carnage and minimize the damage inside the school.

Mercer County Sheriff Jeff Grey and Sgt. Jay Wehrkamp recently sat down with the newspaper ahead of the session to highlight the office's ongoing efforts to prepare deputies and officers to react to the unthinkable.

"We've got to go in, and we have to find the bad guy right now even if that means I've got to go in by myself," Grey said.

"We call it single-officer response," Wehrkamp added.

Before Columbine, officers were generally instructed to contain a scene and set up a perimeter in advance of a SWAT team's arrival, Wehrkamp said.

"After that we decided that doesn't work because we let those people in there and they did all that killing," Wehrkamp said. "So then they came out with the quad idea, making kind of a little miniature SWAT team out of deputies."

Under that strategy, responders would wait until assembling a group of three or four before entering the school, he said.

"For us to get four people together, it may take another 10 or 15 minutes, and every five seconds somebody could be getting killed in there," Wehrkamp continued.

Since 2015, though, the sheriff's office began espousing single-officer response through its active-shooter response training administered to police officers and deputies.

"The idea was now, as soon as somebody gets there, they enter as quickly as they can, find the threat and stop the threat," Wehrkamp said. "That's what we're training all of our people in now."

"The tough part for law enforcement in a county Mercer County's size - we all know somebody in that school," Grey added. "Even if it's not our home school district, we know a family from every school district here, and their kids are in that school and they pay us to protect them and we need to do everything we can."

Wehrkamp said the office was initially assisted in active-shooter response training by the Licking County Sheriff's Office SWAT Team. Since then, Mercer County Sheriff's Office personnel have led the training at different county schools.

It's centered around single-officer response with "possible linkups as additional officers arrive on the scene," according to Wehrkamp.

"We use airsoft weapons, role-playing victims and suspects and real-life training scenarios," Wehrkamp said.

This week's training session, involving simulation training weapons, was held on Tuesday and Wednesday at the St. Henry High School in conjunction with the village's police department. It marked the fourth year the office had held such a session for deputies and officers from throughout the county.

Training has previously been held at Marion Local, Fort Recovery and Parkway schools.

"Our hope is to allow all of the officers from Mercer County to attend training in each of the school districts so that they get an idea of the general layouts of the buildings that they may be asked to respond to one day," an office news release states.

Wehrkamp said at least half the police officers in Mercer County have attended a session.

"Every deputy sheriff that can carry a firearm goes to it every year," Grey was quick to point out. "We're doing this training every year, and it is a requirement."

One area the training is aimed at strengthening is the outside management of a possible active school-shooting scene, Grey said, pointing out that officers likely would be the first to enter the site depending on the location.

The sheriff's office is the primary responder to Marion Local Schools because Maria Stein doesn't have a police department. Deputies often show up randomly to make their presence known, Grey said.

"All of the other schools in Mercer County have a police department that works close with their schools, and we try to work closely with them," Grey said.

"If there ever was an incident in Mercer County we would probably all end up there, probably every agency in the county," Wehrkamp said, noting other duties such as perimeter and traffic control would need carried out.

"Nobody's big enough to handle it," Grey added.

In addition to hosting annual training sessions, the sheriff's office maintains regular contact with school district superintendents and staff, Grey said. Last month, superintendents and deputies from Auglaize and Mercer counties gathered to talk about security measures.

"Everybody's got different dollar amounts and different budgets so we have to work within the parameters of what we have," Grey said. "I think all of the schools in the county do an excellent job of communicating with law enforcement. I think they've got pretty good resources with their counselors and staff."

Wehrkamp a few years back was tasked with helping lead the office's active-shooting training and keeping abreast of developments and trends in part because he's also a firearms trainer.

"With everything that's going on, we're trying to be as prepared as we can. I don't know that you're ever completely prepared, but we're trying to be prepared as we can be," Grey said. "Jay's done a remarkable job with this, even to the point of coming to me with things and going, 'Here's the kind of equipment we need. Here's safety things for the officers. Here's the things I need to do a good, quality training program.' "

Those recommendations, Grey said, are informed by thorough research and continuing instruction. Wehrkamp travels to various seminars, among them an April school-based threat, risk and vulnerability assessment training seminar in Providence, Rhode Island, to keep ahead of the curve.

"Overall, I saw that Mercer County is doing a pretty good job of trying to stay on top of the situation," he said, noting access into most area school buildings today is through one main entrance and visitors must be checked in by staff.

Wehrkamp also said the office offers Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter and Evacuate training via three certified instructors, Detective Carla Baucher and deputies Luke Wolfe and Don Bird. The training - available to those involved with schools, government agencies, businesses and places of worship - "gives participants options and strategies to use during an active-shooter event that may lessen their chance of being inured or killed," Wehrkamp said.

"It used to be lock yourself in the room, go over here in the corner," Grey explained. "Now it's if you can get out of that school, break a window out and get out of that school."