Active
Shooter Preparedness
Prepare | Manage | Communicate
Active
The FBI has reported an alarming and precipitous rise and heightened concern for active shooter incidents in the United States since 2000. In response to the alarming rate of incidents, RepUs has created its proprietary Active Shooter Preparedness training for organizations to prepare, manage and communicate effectively in response to such a horrific incident.
Having helped organizations respond to dozens of crises each year, ReputationUs (RepUs)—a global firm specializing in reputation management and crisis mitigation—is internationally experienced in crisis response planning, training and immediate support. RepUs also has extensive experience addressing crises that involve threats, violence and loss of life.
RepUs first assesses your organization’s current crisis response policies and procedures, including an evaluation of partnerships with local first responders, legal and insurance experts. Our assessment considers the depth and breadth of response plans to diverse crises, including active shooter scenarios. This assessment will inform the recommendations by RepUs on the best approaches to developing a comprehensive, actionable and tailored communication response plan. This plan (or “Blueprint”) will outline strategies and guidelines for managing the immediate actions and communications involved in responding to any potential threat. The purpose of the plan is to prepare your organization’s leaders, staff and locations with a blueprint on how to handle the active shooter/aggressor situation internally and externally, managing the message, preparing for “what if” scenarios and communicating to all relevant audiences in a timely and effective manner.
Active Shooter/Aggressor Blueprint Contents
The Active Shooter/Aggressor Blueprint will include (but not limited to) the following content:
- Identify and assemble your organization’s Crisis Management Team (CMT) with delineated roles and assignments.
- Create a crisis communications flow chart and organization-wide protocol
- Define policies and procedures for reporting and communicating during a crisis such as an active shooter/aggressor
- Identify response timelines and goals
- Designate official spokesperson(s)
- Create messaging, talking points and prepared statements for stakeholer audiences during and after a related crisis
- Identify actions and communications strategies for specified locations to specific audiences (e.g., board, executives, staff, customers, public, community leaders)
- Review media /social media protocols, checklists and strategies
- Train for handling internal/external inquiries
Once the Active Shooter /Aggressor Response Blueprint has been finalized, RepUs will facilitate multiple preparedness training sessions to ensure various parties of your organization are educated, aligned and ready to deploy and successfully communicate during such a horrific crisis.
Training Sessions
- Blueprint Overview & Tabletop Session. RepUs will thoroughly walk through the Active Shooter/Aggressor Response Blueprint with your organization’s Crisis Management Team (CMT). After the blueprint review, your CMT will participate in a 60-90-minute crisis preparedness training session to ensure the task force is ready to deploy and successfully communicate during an active shooter incident. This session, conducted by RepUs, will test the Active Shooter/Aggressor Response Blueprint to ensure the CMT is in lockstep, as well as perform mock crisis scenarios and response strategies.
- Staff Training (Virtual or In-Person – based on safety guidelines). Staff training will educate and prepare your entire staff on the fundamentals of how/if/when to react in an active shooter/aggressor scenario (Learning the FBI’s “Run. Hide. Fight.”) This 60-minute training session is conducted virtually or in-person to ensure all staff can participate. Similar to the CMT training, this staff training is designed to provide insights, procedures and tactical actions to take in the event of an active shooter incident.
- “Blueprint”
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RepUs first assesses your organization’s current crisis response policies and procedures, including an evaluation of partnerships with local first responders, legal and insurance experts. Our assessment considers the depth and breadth of response plans to diverse crises, including active shooter scenarios. This assessment will inform the recommendations by RepUs on the best approaches to developing a comprehensive, actionable and tailored communication response plan. This plan (or “Blueprint”) will outline strategies and guidelines for managing the immediate actions and communications involved in responding to any potential threat. The purpose of the plan is to prepare your organization’s leaders, staff and locations with a blueprint on how to handle the active shooter/aggressor situation internally and externally, managing the message, preparing for “what if” scenarios and communicating to all relevant audiences in a timely and effective manner.
Active Shooter/Aggressor Blueprint Contents
The Active Shooter/Aggressor Blueprint will include (but not limited to) the following content:
- Identify and assemble your organization’s Crisis Management Team (CMT) with delineated roles and assignments.
- Create a crisis communications flow chart and organization-wide protocol
- Define policies and procedures for reporting and communicating during a crisis such as an active shooter/aggressor
- Identify response timelines and goals
- Designate official spokesperson(s)
- Create messaging, talking points and prepared statements for stakeholer audiences during and after a related crisis
- Identify actions and communications strategies for specified locations to specific audiences (e.g., board, executives, staff, customers, public, community leaders)
- Review media /social media protocols, checklists and strategies
- Train for handling internal/external inquiries
- Training
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Once the Active Shooter /Aggressor Response Blueprint has been finalized, RepUs will facilitate multiple preparedness training sessions to ensure various parties of your organization are educated, aligned and ready to deploy and successfully communicate during such a horrific crisis.
Training Sessions
- Blueprint Overview & Tabletop Session. RepUs will thoroughly walk through the Active Shooter/Aggressor Response Blueprint with your organization’s Crisis Management Team (CMT). After the blueprint review, your CMT will participate in a 60-90-minute crisis preparedness training session to ensure the task force is ready to deploy and successfully communicate during an active shooter incident. This session, conducted by RepUs, will test the Active Shooter/Aggressor Response Blueprint to ensure the CMT is in lockstep, as well as perform mock crisis scenarios and response strategies.
- Staff Training (Virtual or In-Person – based on safety guidelines). Staff training will educate and prepare your entire staff on the fundamentals of how/if/when to react in an active shooter/aggressor scenario (Learning the FBI’s “Run. Hide. Fight.”) This 60-minute training session is conducted virtually or in-person to ensure all staff can participate. Similar to the CMT training, this staff training is designed to provide insights, procedures and tactical actions to take in the event of an active shooter incident.