San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office holds more mass shooter training

The annual training is part of an overall effort by the Sheriff’s Office to improve the way it evaluates and conducts training as it looks for improvement and new ways for deputies to learn. The training takes on added significance in the wake of the Jan. 24 Half Moon Bay mass shooting and as shootings across the country continue. Corpus said she wants the Sheriff’s Office to go beyond completing hours and ensure deputies are learning the best way possible and retaining information, along with showing community members it is working to improve services.

“It’s really a full transformation of the way we are looking at training,” Corpus said.

The active violence incident response training occurred on March 28 and 29 at the I.D.E.S. Society Hall on Main Street in Half Moon Bay. Day one focused on classroom learning, while day two focused on putting deputies through training on mass shooting scenarios. Progressive F.O.R.C.E. Concepts, also known as PFC Training, led the training. The Las Vegas-based company is a tactical training company that provides training services for law enforcement, the military and private companies.

Brian Hartman is the chief instructor for PFC Training and has a 30-year background of military, law enforcement and security contract experience domestically and internationally. He ran the training over two days with the Sheriff’s Office and gave them scenarios of different complex circumstances, such as a scenario where an active shooter is dead and there are several victims at a community center to a scenario where there are several active shooters still loose with more victims.

Training focuses on adapting to different situations and finding ways to help in critical situations. Hartman encourages participants to be unafraid to fail given the scenario, as mistakes can lead to learning lessons, and to step up as leaders and build the confidence to take command in crises.

At the end of each scenario, Hartman gave feedback on things the group did well, like communication with one another, or things it could improve, like asking more questions or information about witnesses. Hartman said the group showed significant improvement from the beginning of the first scenario.

“Of the learning and the improvement curve between scenario one and two was massive, between two and three bigger still,” Hartman said. “We are super happy with the progress we are on.”

The event had around 40 participants, mostly patrol deputies from the coast and different departments. Captain Rebecca Albin, who runs the coast bureau, said the exposure would help newer, line-level deputies with communication during a crisis and exposure to different scenarios, with officers on the coast given the first opportunity to participate. Some people participating in the training responded to Half Moon Bay’s Jan. 24 mass shooting that killed seven people. Albin said the training is timely, given mass shootings like the one in Half Moon Bay.

“While we do this training on a regular basis, I think after that happened, there was a real want for additional training, not just from the coast community but from everybody locally,” Albin said.

Albin, who worked the day of the January shooting, said she reverted to her training and knew what she was supposed to because of her preparation.

“That concept of training like it’s real life, there is a reason that we do that,” Albin said. “We train consistently and so much that when it does happen, you revert to your training.”

The classroom training day also saw the participation of two school officials from the Sequoia Unified High School District, while the second day had Cal Fire personnel involved in scenarios to familiarize the two first responder groups. The Sheriff’s Office will get feedback from the instructors and participants on ways to improve.

“The better we train together, the better we can respond, and we know what each of us has trained together,” Corpus said of the different groups involved.

Cal Fire Deputy Chief Jonathan Cox said training for mass shooting events is key to communication and success, and the event allows agencies to look at the tools and process of how each will operate in a crisis.

“It’s bringing the stakeholders together that manage these incidents to really ensure when the next one does happen, you know the systems are in place and the roles are defined,” Cox said.

curtis@smdailyjournal.com

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