Preventing and Responding FASTER to an Active Shooter Attack

Whether it is on in bar, restaurant, office, warehouse, or school, effective active shooter prevention and response training for civilians is a crucial program to include in a emergency or incident preparedness and response program. AEGIS conducts 1, 2.5, 4, and 8 hour live active shooter training workshops on-site and a mirroring online active shooter training course. Contact us today to learn more and for a quote.

Large school campuses are faced with a unique threat when encountering active shooters: locking down every point of entry quickly. How do you ensure you can move your security force around 10-plus buildings, secure 100-plus potential points of entry, or lock every door before being spotted by an active shooter? You get help from a system designed to lock the campus down with the click of a button.

As experts in school security, AEGIS Security & Investigations is constantly searching for the latest technologies and methods intended to enhance campus safety. With Detex Lockdown System, campuses can secure main doors from a centrally located switch linked to panic hardware devices on the doors themselves. This allows campus safety to save time on the systematic locking of doors and focus on security students and staff.

Check out these product specs for Detex:

The Detex product line offers special features and functions designed for educational use wherever safety, security and ease of maintenance are paramount. Whether your order is for new construction or a retrofit of an older building, Detex life safety and security hardware can provide exactly what you need from an extensive inventory of products engineered to suit your requirements.

For interior or exterior doors, for outdoor gates, for electrified options or the simplicity of EasyKits—for any life safety and security application at your education facility, Detex has a range of solutions that will make your responsibilities easier to manage.  As panic hardware has taken on an even more critical role in academic environments, the quality that Detex brings to the job has become a deciding factor in purchasing decisions.  Where life safety and security are at stake, Detex meets today’s education needs without compromise.

From our standpoint, the most important element an automatic lock down system has to offer the campus is the safety of everyone on campus. Most school security officers are not armed. When they are faced with the challenge of securing the school because of an active shooter, they are also faced with the potential of being shot. Locking down the school with the click of a button has the potential to save everyone on campus.

Additionally, a lock down system allows campuses to prepare for intruders. Our experience in Los Angeles has shown that schools located in highly populated areas means there is a higher likelihood of a perpetrator cutting through the school to flee a crime scene. In instances of nearby criminal activity, schools are often notified by police to lock down. With an automatic system, security officers will be able to move to more critical jobs needed on campus to ensure student and staff safety.

Active shooter safety and prevention training is critical in today’s climate. The California State Auditor released a report revealing that state schools cannot handle active shooter situations in their current operations. Lack of funding combined with limited active shooter education has left K-12 public schools in California ill-prepared to handle such a situation. Read the full report here.

The first step is conducting a professional security audit that includes a full policy review. including emergency management, active shooter response, local law enforcement and medical response capabilities, training, policies and procedures, communication systems, adherence to safe schools regulations, anti-bullying initiatives, the school wide positive behavior support plan, memorandums of understanding, and mutual aid agreements.

The second step is conducting a full vulnerability assessment of the physical property to include access control, screening, lighting, camera systems, the use of contractors, visibility, environmental factors, and targeting.

The third step is conducting an analysis of each observation, assessing its individual characteristics and then classifying it for further action. Once the analysis is complete, countermeasures should be defined for each shortfall.

The fourth step would be penetration testing. This would be a real test of security arranged by the security consultant and administrators. This test is not designed to scare students or faculty but rather to determine vulnerabilities and readiness.

The final step in the initial process is education of school faculty and staff related to understanding the warning signs of various kinds of bullying as well as psychological disorders. Per the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education,  when violence is witnessed, a correlation with decreased school attendance and academic performance is found across the board. Students who suffer from bullying and other forms of school-based violence tend to perform poorly, earning average grades of D and F. The only way we can begin to resolve school violence in the long term is with better recognition and treatment.

If your campus doesn’t have a security team, consider reaching out to an AEGIS security consultant to design and implement the best plan for your university or college. Additionally, AEGIS Security & Investigations offers security training programs designed for people at all levels within any organization. These trainings are the first step in understanding you and your organization’s capabilities and responses to an incident. Taking the steps to become better prepared in hostile situations cannot only save your life but help save the lives of those around you.

Our most popular education facility training is the civilian active shooter training that is intended to build on “run, hide, fight,” the long-standing method of saving yourself in these events. Workshops run from an hour to several hours dependent on the needs of the organization and individuals. Our most highly sought after workplace violence training program is our one-hour plus add-on Run, Hide, Fight Live Fire Demo; participants begin with a lecture and basic training on how to handle the situation and are then exposed to sample scenarios in which they practice those same skills. The effectiveness of this scenario can be viewed when on CBS here.

AEGIS Security & Investigations is a Los Angeles region company that is licensed and insured in the State of California to provide high-end armed and unarmed regular and temporary off-duty police officers, bodyguards, security officers, loss prevention agents, and event staff. Additionally, we offer services for private investigation, consultation, people locates, and background investigations. Our trainings and workshops in the field of security licensure and counter-terrorism have been featured in news media and are renowned for their efficacy. For more information or to contact us, visit www.aegis.com.