Royal Oak Township Residents Learn From Active Shooter Training
(Sherry A. Wells, March 8, 2020)
Royal Oak Township, MI – Friends of Royal Oak Township, Inc. brought in the DPD Shield program for active shooter and Stop the Bleed training to the Recreation building in Royal Oak Township on Thursday, February 27.
“This event furthers the mission of the organization to advocate for our communities through health & wellness promotion in addition to cultural enrichment and historical preservation,” said Brigitte Hall, a founder of FOROT.
Sgt. Terri Kennedy of the Detroit Police Department Crime Intelligence Unit began the program with slides showing several places where active shootings have happened.  Locations varied: where we work, shop, go to school, outdoors, places of worship, and airports.
The presentation included several tips for awareness and safety.
Sgt. Kennedy first urged us to always “Check in each building you enter for exits other than where you came in–whether a restaurant, movie or grocery store.” This would include delivery doors, through kitchens and back doors for escape routes to run, get to safety and call 911.
“If you hear a gunshot, don’t waste time asking each other if that was what it was. Take a deep breath to get calm, and go directly in your mind to a decisive moment to determine action,” she said. “Everyone looks for a leader so be one.”
If you can’t exit, then lock doors and barricade them, turn lights out, get out of sight. A video included a Sandy Hook teacher telling how she hid herself and students in a closet on Dec. 14, 2012 in Newtown, Connecticut when 26 people, mostly young students, died. She told the kids how much she loved them. This served to calm them and, if it turned out badly, thoughts of comfort and love would be the last words in their minds.
Sgt. Kennedy also told about the effective involvement of persons who decisively handled a situation. She had participants practice having one person run to each side of the door that a shooter is entering. The shooter can only see in one direction so the other person could grab the gun, or them, and fight.
She closed with, “When police get on the scene, follow commands, show your palms and do not move.”
Stop the Bleed’s part of the evening’s program taught that blood loss is the number one cause of preventable death in any situation. Participants were shown when to pack a bleeding site, when to compress it, and how to use tourniquets. They were urged to have safety items like a tourniquet with them, in cars, homes, classrooms, workplaces etc.
This program is presented at no charge to interested community groups. Contact (313) 596-1879 or dpdshield@detroitmi.gov for more information.