BANGOR, Maine — Every year, the Bangor Police Department requires all officers to participate in active threat and shooter training. That training is going on this week, but no filming was allowed at the training for security reasons.
Sgt. Wade Betters, Bangor Police Department's public information officer, said this training has been mandatory for all Bangor officers for nearly a decade.
"We have actors and we have simulated gunfire, simulated injured people, people screaming, yelling as the officers go into a building or go into a situation so they can get a little bit of training on what it would feel like to be involved in an actual legitimate incident," Betters said.
The training usually takes place at a school or business so it is an unfamiliar environment for the officers, Betters added.
"This is not just a training that we watch on a video or read about in a handout, this is on the ground in a facility with actors, officers trying to go in there to find the active threat, the shooter, whatever it's going to be... render aid, make a place safe for rescue personnel and EMT to come in and render aid to the injured people," Betters said.
He said it's important for police departments to conduct this training on a yearly basis because tactics and protocols for responding to these types of incidents seem to change and evolve every year.
"Years ago the advice was to wait, wait for two officers or three or four before you make entry. That's all gone by the wayside now. Basically the first officer who arrives is commanded, directed to go right into the building to try to find that shooter. So, you could be just a single officer by yourself, backup's coming, but you're going into the building right off," Sgt. Betters said.
Each year, a couple Bangor officers are sent to national training and those officers then conduct the full training for the department.