During a daylong active shooter preparedness workshop in Washington, DC last week, members of the private sector met with representatives of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the law enforcement community to discuss the active shooter threat and take concrete steps to develop planning documents for the organizations. Brian Harrell, assistant director for infrastructure security at DHS’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), told participants the goal of these workshops is to put practical, usable, and shareable information in the hands of those at the community level in this current threat landscape. Asked which threat concerns him most right now, Harrell replied that “as we look at these soft targets and some of the crowded places that are out there, the concern that I have is that there are some organizations out there that haven’t taken the message of protecting our people as seriously as they should.” “Meaning, they haven’t done the response and recovery plans. They haven’t engaged local law enforcement in creating those relationships. They haven’t exercised that response plan, and these things are just foundational to saving people’s lives,” he said. “And so my concern is that there are some individuals, companies, organizations out there that haven’t been as forward-leaning on this as possible, which will create more death and destruction that we could have otherwise avoided.” Read the article at Homeland Security Today.

CISA offers many resources to help organizations address the active shooter threat. Its Active Shooter Preparedness webpage includes videos, posters, and a guide and template for producing an active shooter emergency action plan, among other resources. It also includes materials for conducting an active shooter workshop. DHS regularly convenes active shooter workshops like the one convened in Washington, DC last week. For more information on these events, including to express your interest in a future workshop, email [email protected].