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Assailant article selected as Employee Communications finalist

A Transporter article about active shooter training is a finalist in a national writing contest. Last summer, the transportation department's Safety and Emergency Management teams brought active shooter scenario training to ITD workers.

A winner will be selected from among the four “Feature Writing” finalists early next month, with the other three finalists selected as Honorable Mention. Ragan Communications is based in Chicago.

Read "Assailant: Three Minutes" article

Here's what was submitted with the contest entry:

Assailant: Three Minutes

Description
We’ve all read or seen the horror stories. A disgruntled and armed assailant takes hostages, wrecks havoc, and usually claims innocent lives in the process. This is not the idyllic world some of us grew up in, where we could leave the doors unlocked at night, children could roam miles away from home without a care, and you could leave the keys in your car’s ignition with the windows rolled down. Instead we live in a world where safety and security can be a fluid concept, changing from one moment to the next, and “Stranger Danger” is very real.

With that as the backdrop, ITD carried out an “Active Shooter” training for employees in July 2018. Just two weeks earlier, a knife-wielding transient had attacked and stabbed several little girls at a birthday party in Boise. The little girl who was celebrating her third birthday was one of the victims. She died a few days after the attack, succumbing to multiple stab wounds.

More than 30 ITD employees participated in the Active Shooter/Assailant training exercise at Borah High School in Boise.

Whether we like it or not, or are even ready to deal with it, the number of incidents are growing. From 2000-2008, there was an average of 7.4 active assailant-type incidents per year, where an assailant has or is in the process of killing three or more people in a populated area – a school shooting, a business, or a mall. That yearly average nearly tripled from 2009-2016, to 20.3.

From the tragedy at Columbine High School, to the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, to recent shootings at churches and night clubs, the threat is real.

Goals
The goal was pretty straightforward: The event was meant to simulate a real-world scenario with a disgruntled assailant, and test the capabilities of law enforcement, emergency services, and others who would be involved in a typical response.

In a situation like that, the average police response time is three minutes, so we need to find a way to deal with an assailant until help arrives. Making the most of those three minutes was another objective.

Strategy and Tactics
There was a significant amount of prep work that preceded the event. ITD and IOEM (Idaho Office of Emergency Management) met regularly in the weeks leading up to the event to get everything in order.

Two refugee villages near where the training would be held were notified of the upcoming event, so their members would be aware.

Local law enforcement was made aware of the event as well, to eliminate confusion.

Lastly, the local media was informed so they would not overreact, report it as real, or otherwise incite panic. This was especially important because it took place at a local high school and we didn’t want parents to take matters into their own hands if they heard about it on the news or read about it in social media.

We also stationed police officers around the site to answer questions from concerned onlookers, and had people monitoring social media that day to squelch any rumors.

Execution
The training was co-sponsored, along with ITD, by the Idaho Office of Emergency Management (IOEM), which was formerly the Idaho Office of Homeland Security.

It took place on July 18, 2018. Dozens of ITD employees took part, many serving as either role players or more-involved participants. Boise Police, Boise Fire, and Ada County Paramedics also played a significant role.

Prior to the event on that morning, we had a one-hour briefing from an FBI representative who spoke in length about the history of armed-assailant situations in the United States and set the table for the day’s events and the importance of preparedness.

Two scenarios unfolded: one in the morning and one in early afternoon. The shooters’ point of entry to the building changed from the first scenario to the second, simulating the real-world uncertainty that would exist for police in that situation.

Evaluation
We had numerous employees participate in the training and then take it back to their specific region or area. That was one of the hoped-for outcomes, in addition to elevating the level of emergency preparedness and situational awareness.

I wanted to use the article to paint the picture for those who could not attend the training. Using “three minutes” in the headline would help to create a sense of immediacy and generate interest. The mind tries to fill in the possibilities, which is what I hoped would grab the attention of readers.

I wanted to use a visceral, first-person account to generate momentum for the reader, which is why I went with “boots thundering down the hallway.” I also figured a strong personal reaction would help better paint the picture and help draw the reader into the scenario. I wanted to follow up with some [personal accounts from other attendees so the reader would realize that there was a shared take-away that moved beyond our Headquarters building.

Several participants from the regions outside of Boise responded to the article by saying they have scheduled trainings there at home.

ITD District 2 (Lewiston area) Records inspector Bill Foust was one of the employees who attended the simulation.

“With recent tragedies, it reminds us that the risk is real,” Foust said. “An active shooter incident can happen anywhere at any time.”

Foust, who served in the Army for six years, explained as a veteran he has been trained to survey his surroundings for danger, taking note of exits and troubling signs. After the exercise, he is interested in reviewing or developing a response plan for the district office.

“Here in Idaho, we feel relatively insulated from what is perceived to be a big-city issue,” D2 Engineering Manager Doral Hoff said. “This training helps keep us grounded, which ensures the protection of our employees; we’ll continue to focus on their safety by learning from exercises like this one.”

There were 1,135 unique page views of this story; given that we have 1,550 employees statewide, to engage two-thirds of them with this issue was a success.