Last night I was given the option to attend a SWAT drill, "active shooter drill", after normal mall hours of course, in which i played a typical civilian "shopping" at the time of a shooting. I brought along a buddy since we both plan on becoming officers one day. I was not impressed with their tactics, I know im just an untrained eye who watches allot of shows but honestly, we were both very confused. It was a 3 floor mall, taped off parts to limit size, we were on second floor over looking 1 and 3 and could see escalators so we could watch the teams make their sweeps to evacuate us civilians out of the mall. They swept the 3rd floor first, only went 1 direction every time without clearing the other side of the open circle part. (center of mall has a open circle so all floors are visible). Then, my favorite part, They went straight down to the first floor without clearing the 2nd floor where I was. Completely exposed they went straight down to the 1st floor. I steeped out of hiding spot to see why they did that and a team on the 3rd floor put the lazer on me thinking I was a shooter so i freeze put hands up and stood still. They did not give me a single command, just sighted in on me for a good minute, So i figure a scared person would run so I did and the did not yell to stop or give me a direction to go.
So honestly guys doesn't this sound a bit off, I take it they took this seriously so I think they have some work to do. Granted a mall is such a mess of a place for this scenario to take place in, but still, they were exposing them selves every minute.
So honestly guys doesn't this sound a bit off, I take it they took this seriously so I think they have some work to do. Granted a mall is such a mess of a place for this scenario to take place in, but still, they were exposing them selves every minute.