Rapid Deployment Training

To prepare law enforcement officials to respond to school violence, Attorney General Roy Cooper has made Rapid Deployment Training available through the North Carolina Justice Academy and the State Bureau of Investigation to all local law enforcement, including School Resource Officers (SROs).

Before the tragic school shooting in Columbine, Colorado, local law enforcement agencies relied on SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) teams and special intervention units to respond to situations involving deadly force. Traditional police training taught officers who are first to arrive at a shooting incident to "surround and contain" until a SWAT team could get to the scene. Columbine made it clear that this approach needed to be changed.

Law enforcement experts now advocate a technique called Rapid Deployment for handling violent situations at schools and other institutions. The technique teaches officers who are first to arrive on the scene to assemble a contact team of officers, enter the building, and find any active shooters. Next, a rescue team of officers is dispatched to go inside and assist anyone who may have been injured. During an emergency at a school, rapid deployment technique will save lives.

The Justice Academy and the SBI have conducted "train the trainer" courses in Rapid Deployment across the state. Officers who attend these classes then carry the technique back home to their local law enforcement agency where they teach other officers.