The Douglas County Sheriff's Office held active shooter training exercises Tuesday at Sunnyslope Elementary School in Roseburg.

The exercises included simulated scenarios where deputies experience mock encounters with active shooters.

“The more we train, the more that we practice this kind of response, it becomes a conditioned response for the deputies,” Lt. Brad O’Dell said. “The goal of the training is for them to get that real life, real world scenario based training so it becomes a conditioned response.”

These scenarios ranged from welfare checks that became dangerous to active shooter threats with multiple assailants, providing deputies with a number of different possible situations.

“Predictable is preventable,” said Ed Villarreal, the District Security Coordinator with Roseburg Public Schools. "It's a good safety motto to have."

This was the first active threat training drill DCSO has held since 2018. Tactics and protocol for active shooter threats have changed significantly since then.

Previously, most protocols had officers staged outside of the school, according to DCSO. Now the focus is on quickly stopping the threat.

"That's exactly what it is now, everything comes down to, you hear shooting? You're running at the shooting to stop the threat as soon as possible," said Matthew Bird, a deputy with DCSO.

"This could happen at anytime, anywhere," O'Dell said. "Preparing the deputies, preparing our staff, and making sure that they are ready, and know exactly how to respond is critically important."