HUMBLE, Texas – With the Parkland, Florida and Santa Fe School shootings, first responders around the nation have been gearing up to defend our nation's most precious lives -- children and students.
KPRC got an exclusive look at a local ISD's training that directly addresses how police and first-responders should handle a situation should an active shooter enter one of the district's 40+ schools.
At Summer Creek High School, police gathered for a two-day annual training Monday and Tuesday.
"The goal of our training is to offer a state of preparedness for our officers to respond to emergency situations from our campuses," Humble ISD police Chief Solomon said.
The Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT) Center at Texas State University was created in 2002 as a partnership between Texas State University, the San Marcos, Texas Police Department and the Hays County, Texas Sheriff’s Office in order to meet the need to active shooter response training in surrounding communities.
"Our police department has been participating in ALERRT training for over 10 years," Cook said.
In 2013, ALERRT at Texas State was named the National Standard in Active Shooter Response Training by the FBI.
"Our police department has been participating in ALERRT training for over 10 years," Cook said.
The training is force-on-force, scenario-based training. Officers are confronted with various scenarios. Trained personnel teach the officers how to communicate, place themselves in the most effective formations and how to defend themselves and students.
"The significance is that most police agencies in the State of Texas utilize this platform as emergency response," Cook said. "It gives us the same terminology. It also allows us to know what movements we would make in a building, and how we would work together as one unit."
The program has trained more than 130,000 police and fire personnel nationwide.
"It keeps our children and our staff safe by allowing us to be prepared in any situation," Cook said.
Humble ISD police are also part of PBK's Texas School Safety and Security council -- a council where many ISD chiefs and law enforcement come together to share best practices when it comes to school safety.