NCJ Number
206794
Journal
Law and Order Volume: 52 Issue: 6 Dated: June 2004 Pages: 116,118,121
Date Published
June 2004
Length
5 pages
Annotation
This article describes how countries can work together in an effort to protect children who are in school.
Abstract
In Ma’alot, Israel, where heavily armed terrorists from the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine took 70 children hostage and executed a number of them in 1974. Then there were the shootings at Columbine High School in the United States in 1999. These incidents have forced officials to develop new methodologies for dealing with school intervention situations. Israeli shooting and tactics instructors from Instinctive Shooting International (ISI) are helping train law enforcement personnel in instinctive and point shooting techniques. While taking into account the differences in Israeli and American responsibilities when responding to a shooter in a school situation, ISI has altered the Israeli experiences to the laws of the jurisdictions within the United States and police use of force policies. About 30 percent of the Israeli protocol had to be eliminated as not being acceptable in the United States. However, since the 1970’s when the Israeli’s implemented their school security system, not a single act of terrorism by Islamic Fundamentalists has occurred against Israeli schools. Recently the ISI Training Center conducted a 3-day patrol officer and instructor antiterrorist training course. In offering this course, ISI’s objectives were to teach law enforcement officers’ immediate response and rapid deployment drills for an escalated Active Shooter scenario in the school environment. Two main topics were tactics and school security rings. Tactics are for first respondents based on Israeli doctrines of intervention. School security rings are achieved with cooperation between school administrators and the police. A training manual was provided to officers taking the course. Instructors of this course are Israeli and American special anti-terror and intelligence units’ personnel and their tactics are time proven.