Area law enforcement agencies participated in an active shooter training Thursday and Friday at the Brownwood Middle School which was presented by the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT), an active shooter training program at Texas State University in San Marcos.

Twenty-one officers from seven agencies completed the class which was taught by four Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT) certified instructors.  Those agencies participating included Brownwood, Early, Comanche, Deleon, and Cisco Police Departments and the Brown County Sheriff’s Office.

Brownwood Chief of Police Terry Nichols is a founding member of the ALERRT program, which has become an internationally recognized training and development entity through Texas State University.  He retired from the San Marcos Police Department to dedicate himself full time to ALERRT as the Assistant Director and the Director of Curriculum Development for over six years before coming to work as Brownwood’s Chief of Police last month.  Since its founding, ALERRT has acquired over $50 million in grant funding and trained more than 90,000 officers.

The ALERRT training was brought to Brownwood at no cost other than hourly pay.

“I wanted to get us some training.  Officers enjoy professional development,” said Nichols.  He explained that the course cost the officers nothing, as it is funded by Texas State University.

This type of training, Nichols stated, helps to get law enforcement agencies on the “same page,” to have a plan of how they will work together in times of mass casualties, whether caused by active shooters, accidents or natural disasters.

He stated that although S.W.A.T. teams and hostage negotiators are called when there is an active shooter, the first responders need to have a plan, to go in and start saving lives.  Nichols stated that the Brownwood Police Department works with Abilene Police Department for incidents like an active shooter situation, but that area agencies are working to form a joint S.W.A.T. team.

“Our goal is to work with all Brown County agencies to have a joint regional tactical team,” said Nichols.  He stated that the San Marcos area had formed a joint regional tactical team and it was a great benefit to the area.

Chief Nichols arranged for the ALERRT class to be hosted in Brownwood and although a founder of the program, he did not teach the class but rather watched the training and scenarios and served as an escort for Brownwood City Manager Emily Crawford and Brownwood ISD Superintendent Joe Young through the training area as the scenario progressed Friday afternoon.  Four ALERRT-certified instructors taught the class.

Friday afternoon’s hands-on training offered a scenario of workplace violence which spilled onto the Brownwood Middle School campus.  A school employee, who had just been fired, had a gun.  A hostage negotiator and teams of officers were involved in the mock crisis.  Nichols stated that real guns, which had been converted to fire special projectiles, were used in the training.  The projectiles would mark where they hit, helping officers (and trainers) know if they were firing accurately under pressure and stress or if they needed to do more practice on the firing range to improve their skills in such a situation.  The course also teaches building searches and working as a team, which officers use every day when on patrol.  This class taught the fundamentals and put them into action in an active shooter situation.

Nichols stated that he plans to bring more ALERRT classes to Brownwood, possibly involving exterior response and medical classes.  He explained that officers learn how to “stop the killing” and then how to “stop the dying.”  Police officers are not trained to perform medical tasks but in an emergency situation may have to do basic triage to help save the most lives possible.

Through these courses, officers learn how to take control and start saving people with basic first aid so they can save lives before medical responders are able to enter due to what may still be a hostile situation.  Nichols stated that he hopes to involve the fire departments and EMS in these trainings soon as well.  This would help coordinate a disaster plan and help keep training, “on the same page,” as training in the different agencies of first response can slightly differ and cause confusion.

For the public, Nichols stated that Assistant Chief James Fuller as well as Early Chief of Police David Mercer offer ALERRT classes and both are available to teach organizations, businesses and faith based groups how to respond to an active shooter situation.  Classes take approximately 1-1.5 hours and are important to “empower and educate” the public, said Nichols.

Being trained in first aid and CPR as an ordinary citizen is also important.  “The true first responders are citizens, the people involved in the crisis,” explained Nichols. “Hopefully, we pray an event like this never happens here, but bad things happen.”  It’s important to know how to avoid being a victim and how to survive, he stated.

Nichols expressed thanks to the Brownwood Independent School District and to Superintendent Dr. Joe Young for allowing the use of the school for the ALERRT class.

For more information on ALERRT and their active shooter trainings,