Sibley, Iowa — Law enforcement officers, EMS personnel, fire department personnnel, and 911 dispatchers from as far away as Woodbury County to the south, and Worthington, Minnesota to the north, are gathered at the Sibley-Ocheyedan High School in Sibley this week, taking training they pray they’ll never be called upon to use.
ALERRT, or Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training, provides tools to better deal with an active shooter situation.
The Head Instructor, who is leading a team of instructors for this week’s training, is Sgt. Luke Fleener of the Webster County Sheriff’s Office in Ft. Dodge, and a certified ALERRT trainer. He says the training program traces it’s roots back to the days following the Columbine school shooting in Colorado.
He says the training has evolved over time, adjusting to the lessons learned with each new mass shooting incident.
Sgt. Fleener says it used to be that there was considered a hot zone, and a cold zone. The hot zone being the building in which the shooter was operating, while the cold zone being the safer area outside, where medical crews were forced to wait to get in to treat the wounded.
The portion of the ALERRT Training program being covered this week in Sibley is called AAIR, which stands for Active Attack Integrated Response, and Fleener says it’s designed to get law enforcement, 911 dispatchers, EMS and fire personnel all operating from the same page of the same playbook, should the worst case scenario come to pass.
The cost of the ALERRT Training is paid for by the federal government, and there is no charge for any emergency personnel, or their department, for the training.
This week’s ALERRT Training is taking place Wednesday and Thursday at the Sibley-Ocheyedan High School.
At top of page: Sgt. Luke Fleener (left) poses with part of his training staff at Sibley-Ocheyedan High School
Below are a few photos from Wednesday’s ALERRT Training session in Sibley…………..
