Do you feel that the Military Police needs to step up their game plan since a new Fort Hood incident?

SGT Private RallyPoint Member — Fri, 04 Apr 2014 00:31:40 -0400

There have been two major incidents at Fort Hood involving active shooter, and there have been past accounts of active shooter incidents at other Army installations. For Military Police, do we feel that the Army needs to step up the game to enhance more training and even conduct active shooter drills to deal with such incidents. Though the Army is suppose to certify MP's with FLETA (Federal Law Enforcement Accreditation), and extend the training program at USAMPS. But the process is taking longer than it should to implement. From what I gathered, it took 15 minutes for MP's and DoA Police to respond and handle the incident. I feel that is 10-12 minutes too long. Please feel free to share your input

Response by SFC(P) Private RallyPoint Member made Apr 4 at 2014 7:26 AM

SFC(P) Private RallyPoint Member — Fri, 04 Apr 2014 07:26:44 -0400

Yes we need to conduct better active shooter training. But we need to start taking back control of the bases first. To many of our control measures have been given to private companies.

Response by SSG (ret) William Martin made Apr 4 at 2014 9:35 PM

SSG (ret) William Martin — Fri, 04 Apr 2014 21:35:50 -0400

<p>Its not the MPs who need more training; the Army and the U.S. Government need to take better care of their SMs better whether that means providing better medical care or doing something with the ones who are unstable and drop the PC bull[expletive].</p>

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made Apr 5 at 2014 3:12 AM

SSG Private RallyPoint Member — Sat, 05 Apr 2014 03:12:49 -0400

Its not about "stepping up their game plan" truth is we can never prepare for every possible incident. What we can do is adapt and over come. Fort Hood is a big place. There could be lots of reasons as to why it took them 15 min (if thats even accurate). Units get new SM all the time and trying to train everyone can get hard. We can all sit here and say they should have done this or that. Thats a situation that you wont know how smooth things will run until it happens for real. Thats just my opinion though. I think they did the best they could!

Response by CPT Private RallyPoint Member made Apr 5 at 2014 6:44 AM

CPT Private RallyPoint Member — Sat, 05 Apr 2014 06:44:26 -0400

In a word, yes...but I don't believe this is a training issue. The current response time for post MPs in an active shooter scenario is unacceptable and unworkable, nor is the advice to "shelter in place" anything other than guidance to be a victim. A possible solution: every Brigade at a minimum needs to have a quick response team located within the Brigade footprint. It could easily be task organized from existing MPs or PSD elements within the unit. This team could be mobilized within the first few minutes to immediately respond to an active shooter threat...something that post MPs will never be able to do because they aren't colocated with the threat. Training isn't the problem...its responding LEOs not being able to locate and engage the shooter before casualties start to pile up.

While I wouldn't be against the right for all of us to have the ability to carry a loaded duty weapon, I don't think it's ever going to happen. The Chain of Command is simply unwilling to accept the risk of an ND from PFC Joe Snuffy while he is playing with his loaded M9. If I was the Commander, I would likely be risk-adverse in this regard as well.

All things considered, we are working side by side with trained shooters and law enforcement personnel every day. There is no reason to not at least use some of them. It is time for us take a more proactive stance on this issue. The status quo is unacceptable.

Response by SGT Christopher Lachcik made Aug 31 at 2017 8:41 AM

SGT Christopher Lachcik — Thu, 31 Aug 2017 08:41:17 -0400

I can't recall a week when I was active duty that we didn't do some type of active shooter training lol