North Allegheny hosts active shooter response training for North Hills officers

It’s training police officers hope to never use.

“Heaven forbid, if (an active shooter event) would happen, they would have to familiarity with the buildings,” said Greg Garcia, a Ross Township police officer and and member of the North Hills Special Response Team.

Police officers from throughout Allegheny County’s northern suburbs participated in active shooter response training conducted by the North Hills Special Response Team at North Allegheny’s Carson Middle School on July 26-28, and July 31-Aug. 2.

The training gives first responders the skills and knowledge to respond to an active shooter emergency on a school campus, according to Dan Stack, North Allegheny’s manager of school safety and security.

Last year, the North Hills Special Response Team conducted the training at the Hampton School District, which Stack attended.

Stack invited them to conduct the training this year at NA, which has 12 buildings, 8,500 students and more than 1,000 employees. Stack said the drills are a good way for local law enforcement officers to get to know the campus.

“We want this to be second nature. You’re prepared. It’s not the first time you’re doing this,” he said.

The North Hills Special Response Team is a regional organization that provides a highly trained, better equipped, and larger number of officers to serious emergency events, such as the high-risk serving of warrants, barricaded subjects, hostage situations, sniper situations, active shooter events and other situations outside normal policing, according to the Ross Township Police Department.

The team conducts active-shooter training annually at different school districts in the North Hills area, according to Garcia.

A total of 139 officers from area police departments attended this year’s session, said Eric Egli, a sergeant with the McCandless Police Department and member of the special response team. It’s beneficial to have worked with officers from neighboring police departments instead of meeting them for the first time during an emergency, he said.

“We will have a unified response if we all received training in all of the same tactics,” Egli said.

Departments who had members attending were McCandless, Shaler, Ross, West View, Northern Regional, O’Hara, Fox Chapel School Police, Franklin Park, Millvale, Reserve Township, Hampton Township, Sharpsburg, North Hills School Police and Port Authority Police, according to Garcia.

Ross/West View EMS also assisted and participated, he said.

Stack said North Allegheny’s school resource officers, who are from the McCandless Police Department, and several NA principals also attended.

The team’s active shooter training is designed for police officers with or without prior active shooter training. It offers a refresher from previous training and adds skills based on national standards, according to the North Allegheny School District.

Stack said this event is in addition to the ALICE emergency response training approved in May by the North Allegheny School Board. ALICE training, which is is being implemented this summer and fall, is intended for district staff, administration, teachers and students.

In the case of an emergency, Stack reminds parents to follow information that will be provided by the district via email and/or phone. He said it will not be posted on social media. He reminds parents to always bring proper identification when picking up their child, especially during an emergency.

Anyone — even those living outside the district — hearing or seeing something suspicious can call 1-844-SAF2SAY to report it, he said, or 911 can be called for emergencies.

The North Hills Special Response Team includes members from the Allegheny County Sheriff’s Office; the following police departments: Etna, Fox Chapel, Franklin Park, Hampton Township, Indiana Township, McCandless, Millvale Borough, Northern Regional, O’Hara Township, Ohio Township, Port Authority of Allegheny Police, Reserve, Ross, Shaler, Sharpsburg, West Deer and West View; and Ross/West View EMS.