NMPD Runs Active Shooter Drills at Borough Schools

The New Milford Police Department recently ran "active shooter training" at three of the borough's public schools during required lockdown drills.

New Jersey passed legislation that went into effect on Nov. 1 requiring school districts to run at least one lockdown drill a month in addition to a monthly fire drill. The NMPD decided to use the January lockdown drills as an opportunity to train for the potential of a school shooting.

"It was a 20 minute exercise and it involved our SROs, detectives as well as patrol officers," said NMPD Chief Frank Papapietro. "The officers immediately went into their formations as they were trained to do and they swept the hallways—to find the shooter is their ultimate goal."

The chief said he was impressed with the department's officers since it had been awhile since they last trained on an active shooter scenario but that officers immediately fell into their places.

Papapietro said the officers used training guns, which were red and made of rubber for this exercise in the schools. Officers conducted these drills in the high school and at Berkley School and Gibbs School. A similar drill is planned for the middle school this spring.

While the students were locked down in their classrooms, the officers moved through the school as if searching for a shooter who entered the building. Most, if not all of the students, never knew the police were there.

"Students were pretty unaware," said Papapietro. "If the drill is done right then they wouldn’t even know we were there."

Papapietro said that school administrators did an excellent job with the lockdown drills, ensuring that students were kept safe in locked classrooms.

"We were very happy with the schools' reponses," said Papapietro. "There were very few glitches and overall it was a great exercise."

Both the school and the police department utilize the lockdown drills to look for areas where they can improve on student safety.

"You find out where students may have been locked out of classrooms or students who happened to head to the bathroom right before the lockdown," said Papapietro.  

There were only a select few people who were aware that the active shooter drill was going to take place.

"We keep all the information in a tight group because if the drills are too scripted they just don’t have the training value," said Papapietro.

The chief said it is important to keep the scenario as realistic as possible so that real time issues show up and can be dealt with before an actual emergency takes place.

"The element of surprise is always good to have and you get to see the unknown," said Papapietro. "There are things you don’t get to see with a scripted drill, but when there is some surprise and you freelance and see what happens."

There were a couple of issues that developed while the drills were being conducted. 

"We did have one case where the parent was coming to pick up a sick child so we held off until the child was released to her parent," said Papapietro.

Some parents also happened to show up during the drills.

"We did have some parents come to the doors of the school and we explained what was happening and they were all very understanding," said Papapietro.

The school district and the police department plan more drills in the spring.

"The next set of drills for the school year will be evacuation drills where the students are led to their approved sites," said Papapietro.

These drills will take place in nicer weather since the students will have to walk from their classrooms out of the building to off-campus sites that have been designated as safe evacuation destinations.

"For parents, the thought that we have to do these drills is distasteful but in the end they are happy that we can protect their kids," said Papapietro.