By Lindsey Rowland
lrowland@wbcowqel.com
According to national statistics, schools are way ahead of businesses in terms of emergency preparedness and, while we should never live in fear, it is important for local organizations to be ready in the case of a crisis situation.
For this reason, Bucyrus Police Chief Dave Koepke and Officer John Seif presented at the Bucyrus Safety Council meeting with the hope of educating the representatives from businesses all around Bucyrus on the steps that can be taken to protect them in case of emergencies.
As Koepke said, “We live in a world of wolves – you won’t be the sheep.”
Every situation is unique. For example, Norton’s Flowers has an intense amount of wasp spray at their entrance as a defensive mechanism, and Koepke urged every business to have a an active shooter plan in their evacuation training, right next to tornado or fire drills. Statistically speaking, businesses are the number one place that active shootings take place, so this readiness of utmost importance.
“There’s no foolproof method to avoid tragedy,” Koepke said. “But we can recognize the indicators of violence.”
Koepke and Seif then walked through the ways to respond to an active shooter: evacuate, hide, take action, and let somebody know. The first step should always be to do your best to get out of and away from the premises, to take everyone with you that you possibly can, and to notify law enforcement immediately. If that is entirely impossible, you should hide and, as a last resort, you should fight back. In these crises, some action is better than no action, and Seif invited everyone to look around and be aware of surroundings.
Seif quizzed the group on what routes could be taken to escape the room the meeting was held in, as well as pointed out that anything, even a pen or a chair, could be a weapon.
“The survival mindset,” Seif said,” is about awareness, preparation, and rehearsal. You never know how strong you are until being strong is all you have.”
The ultimate point was made that everyone is responsible for their own security, and that, if you are able to defend yourself, you should. Furthermore, the awareness and preparedness helps law enforcement to do their job.
Koepke said, “It’s critical for law enforcement to be a part of safety council and to be talking to all the unique organizations in the community that we serve, to talk about crisis intervention and emergency planning and emergency preparedness, so that we can work together to protect and prevent crisis from happening.”
Some resources for everyone to check out are the “Run, Hide, Fight” video at www.readyhoustontx.gov, the active shooter risk analysis that NYPD has on their website, the Homeland Security homepage at www.dhs.gov, and FBI.gov.