Training before massacre 'flawed'
By Kieran Nicholson
Denver Post Staff Writer
Sept. 23, 2000 - A Jefferson County sheriff's commander conceded Friday that response training before the Columbine High massacre was flawed and that the various police agencies lacked coordination.
"We did what we were trained to do, but perhaps some of that training was flawed," John Kiekbusch said during the second day of a post-Columbine "Picking up the Pieces" conference in Denver.
During the conference, authorities painted the Columbine response as chaotic, in part because of communication problems, poor coordination and insufficient training.
The main criticism of the police response on April 20, 1999, was that officers hung back and waited for the SWAT team instead of following killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold into the school even after trading gunfire with them.
Harris and Klebold killed 12 students and a teacher and wounded two dozen others before committing suicide.
Kiekbusch said some officers were outgunned by the heavily armed teenagers, but he added: "You can't always wait for the SWAT team." Largely because of Columbine, training philosophies around the country are beginning to change, placing an emphasis on immediate entry.
And police, fire, medical and school officials in Jefferson County and nationwide are now working together to improve preparations for similar school attacks.
Kiekbusch said that as police and firefighters from dozens of agencies swarmed around Columbine that day, confusion ensued because the departments had not trained together for such an incident.
Authorities are now coordinating a planned response and urging other agencies around the country to do the same, many said during the conference, which ends today.
"We have to practice this training," Kiekbusch said. "We have to coordinate that effort and make sure that people won't come into this situation cold."
And as much as they'd rather not think of another Columbine, it's a situation that everyone should prepare for, other speakers at the conference said. The seminar is sponsored by various local and federal government agencies, including the Jefferson County school district and the U.S. Justice Department.
"We don't do it (prepare for emergencies) enough," said Arvada Police Chief Ron Sloan. "To bring some sense to chaos, that cannot be done unless we plan for it."
The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office has beefed up its school resource officer program since the worst school shooting in the nation's history, and patrol deputies are being encouraged to drop into schools as often as possible. "We need to be in the schools and we need to make an impact," said Kiekbusch.
Sheriff's deputies now spend an additional 600 hours at schools each month at a cost of $700,000 annually, said Kiekbusch. Another change involves making sure emergency-response agencies have detailed school maps. They didn't when the shooting started at Columbine last year.
The Littleton Fire Department now keeps maps on CD-ROM, said paramedic Capt. Jim Olsen.
The CDs also include photos of school grounds, names and phone numbers of staff members, and even yearbook photos of students.
As some SWAT members entered the school, they did have copies of Columbine yearbook pages with the photos of Harris and Klebold circled so they would know what the killers looked like, Olsen said.
Adding to the confusion that day was the constant scream of the fire alarm system, triggered by Harris and Klebold's bombs. The alarms wailed for six hours.
Police knocked alarm speakers off the walls with the butts of their rifles. With detailed information, authorities could have turned off the system, or at least contacted someone who could have turned it off for them.
Copyright 2000 The Denver Post.
By Kieran Nicholson
Denver Post Staff Writer
Sept. 23, 2000 - A Jefferson County sheriff's commander conceded Friday that response training before the Columbine High massacre was flawed and that the various police agencies lacked coordination.
"We did what we were trained to do, but perhaps some of that training was flawed," John Kiekbusch said during the second day of a post-Columbine "Picking up the Pieces" conference in Denver.
During the conference, authorities painted the Columbine response as chaotic, in part because of communication problems, poor coordination and insufficient training.
The main criticism of the police response on April 20, 1999, was that officers hung back and waited for the SWAT team instead of following killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold into the school even after trading gunfire with them.
Harris and Klebold killed 12 students and a teacher and wounded two dozen others before committing suicide.
Kiekbusch said some officers were outgunned by the heavily armed teenagers, but he added: "You can't always wait for the SWAT team." Largely because of Columbine, training philosophies around the country are beginning to change, placing an emphasis on immediate entry.
And police, fire, medical and school officials in Jefferson County and nationwide are now working together to improve preparations for similar school attacks.
Kiekbusch said that as police and firefighters from dozens of agencies swarmed around Columbine that day, confusion ensued because the departments had not trained together for such an incident.
Authorities are now coordinating a planned response and urging other agencies around the country to do the same, many said during the conference, which ends today.
"We have to practice this training," Kiekbusch said. "We have to coordinate that effort and make sure that people won't come into this situation cold."
And as much as they'd rather not think of another Columbine, it's a situation that everyone should prepare for, other speakers at the conference said. The seminar is sponsored by various local and federal government agencies, including the Jefferson County school district and the U.S. Justice Department.
"We don't do it (prepare for emergencies) enough," said Arvada Police Chief Ron Sloan. "To bring some sense to chaos, that cannot be done unless we plan for it."
The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office has beefed up its school resource officer program since the worst school shooting in the nation's history, and patrol deputies are being encouraged to drop into schools as often as possible. "We need to be in the schools and we need to make an impact," said Kiekbusch.
Sheriff's deputies now spend an additional 600 hours at schools each month at a cost of $700,000 annually, said Kiekbusch. Another change involves making sure emergency-response agencies have detailed school maps. They didn't when the shooting started at Columbine last year.
The Littleton Fire Department now keeps maps on CD-ROM, said paramedic Capt. Jim Olsen.
The CDs also include photos of school grounds, names and phone numbers of staff members, and even yearbook photos of students.
As some SWAT members entered the school, they did have copies of Columbine yearbook pages with the photos of Harris and Klebold circled so they would know what the killers looked like, Olsen said.
Adding to the confusion that day was the constant scream of the fire alarm system, triggered by Harris and Klebold's bombs. The alarms wailed for six hours.
Police knocked alarm speakers off the walls with the butts of their rifles. With detailed information, authorities could have turned off the system, or at least contacted someone who could have turned it off for them.
Copyright 2000 The Denver Post.