Questions raised about police protocols after Uvalde school shooting
ARLINGTON, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) - As we continue to learn more about the timeline of what lead up to the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, people are asking questions about police protocols for situations like a mass shooting.
Local criminologist Dr. Alex Del Carmen spent years training Arlington police officers how to respond to any situation, including an active shooter. He broke down how it usually works.
"So when you have an active shooter on the scene and there's a police presence, the protocol is to simply stop the threat," Dr. Del Carmen said.
He said police are trained to neutralize a threat, which means they may have to eliminate the target or suspect.
"Every second counts and the longer that the person stays on site in order to kill more people, there will be more body bags needed at the end of the day," Dr. Del Carmen said. " So officers understand that and they are asked and required to engage."
He said law enforcement's response changes if it's a barricade situation.
"An active shooter going into a school with an AR-15 shooting randomly is a very different scenario and has a very different protocol than [a situation involving] somebody that is inside a home or even inside a school, locking the door and saying, 'I've got twenty hostages, I'm not going to come out,'" Dr. Del Carmen said.
He said the average law enforcement officer in a barricade situation is trained to get out of the building and call SWAT to respond.
Different agencies are trained to constantly evaluate the situation and determine what's going on.
"If the bad guy shows up and goes inside the classroom and you have windows and through those windows, you're able to see that the bad guy is executing everyone inside, your job is going to be to breach that area and shoot the person to save a life," Dr. Del Carmen said.
"But if there are no windows and the person locks themselves in a room and starts screaming 'I'm not coming out of this room until such time that I'm able to talk,' then at that point officers outside would be required to contain the area and call for SWAT."
Dr. Del Carmen said at this point he can't say what went right or wrong in Uvalde. We will simply have to see what else comes out from the investigation.
