Active shooter management course helping Woodbury County officials

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KCAU) — Emergency officials are learning firsthand how to manage active shooter situations.

Woodbury County Emergency Management is currently holding a three-day active shooter incident management course. First responders from around the tri-state area were invited to come in. Officials said it’s always important to practice for this kind of scenario.

“Over the last couple of years we’ve had to really go in and practice active shooter response protocols and all sorts of responses for active type events,” Woodbury County Emergency Management coordinator Michael Montino said. “What we wanted to do was we did a tabletop exercise, and now what we wanted to do was bring in a contractor from the outside. That’s what’s great about this scenario, is they got a lot of different resources and training aids to allow us to do that in one room.”

“It doesn’t just apply to the active shooter incident,” Lieutenant Jeremy McClure with the Sioux City Police Department said. “I’m finding a lot of things that I can take away and apply to just other emergencies that we may encounter.”

The simulations become more difficult throughout the course, such as increasing the number of ‘shooters’ to respond to. This helps the agencies come up with unique ways to respond to those situations.

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