Shooting was fake, but lessons learned were real

The scene was eerily realistic for a drill.

First, the FBI agent playing a disgruntled Harper College employee shouts, "Harper is gonna pay! Screw this place!"

Pointing a real gun loaded with blanks, he shoots a police officer and bystander before fleeing into the plant science building and continuing the rampage.

For what seems like an eternity, police storm classrooms, offices and the greenhouse in search of the shooter. In one run-through, he surrenders. In the next, he takes his own life.

Several other people are injured or killed. But the Harper College and Palatine police come away from the drill confident their actions would have saved lives, had this been a real event.

The drill Wednesday afternoon tested how Harper and Palatine police would react to a shooter on campus, similar to the NIU shootings in February. The departments will now analyze their performance in order to improve their response plans, which can also be applied other crises.

"We like to think of ourselves as on the cutting edge of safety," said Harper College Police Chief Mike Alsup. "We're responsible for a community of 15,000."

The drill involved about 12 officers, or the number of people who'd ordinarily be on campus any given afternoon. They didn't know any details ahead of time such as the number of shooters or whether there'd be hostages.

There have been similar exercises in the past, but this drill marked the first time Harper went online with the FBI's Virtual Command Center. The crisis management tool is a secure information-sharing Web site run out of Baton Rouge, La., that allows the law enforcement community - FBI as well as local authorities - to submit and view information.

According to Alsup, Harper and Northwestern University are the only schools in Illinois, and two of only six in the U.S., that currently have access to the FBI system.

The FBI Web site is a multimedia library storing Harper's 124-page emergency operations plan, rapid response and deployment policy, phone directory, floor plans and campus photographs.

It also features an event board where the incident commander posts developments as they come over the radio. The site can be accessed remotely, so college officials can keep up to date even if they aren't on campus.

Following Wednesday's drill, one entry read, "shooter shot and down weapon recovered." Another described a victim's injuries and cautioned that the rescue must wait until the scene was secured.

Harper will tap into the Virtual Command Center for any future emergencies, such as a bomb threat, which the college had only a few months ago.

As Alsup kept track of the drill's entries on his laptop, he started spotting errors by the officers.

Right away, the first team made a wrong move. They stopped to tend to the wounded officer instead of running into the plant and science building.

"The initial response should be going after the shooter and bypassing anybody who's injured because we have to stop further harm," said Harper Police Deputy Chief Paul LeBreck, acknowledging that emergency responders will have conflicting priorities.

The error wasn't repeated in the second trial, and LeBreck said they'll do all they can to prevent others. Just as a football team reviews game tape, the FBI agents and police planned to endlessly analyze video of the drill.

"It's good to make mistakes in this environment," Alsup said. "It was nice to see the second team thought more tactically."

Alsup also said they'll re-evaluate other responses, such as the protocol that four officers move through a building in a diamond formation. Classroom space was too narrow.

"It may not be correct to train that way when it's not realistic," said Alsup. "We need to make sure they're capable of being flexible."

While Wednesday's drill focused on a campus shooter, the training can be applied to any crisis such as a tornado, fire or plane crash, said LeBreck. It was also an opportunity to improve relationships between agencies.

"You can get a situation under control quicker when you understand what each others' capabilities are," said LeBreck.