Active Shooter/Hostile Event Response

By First Lieutenant Spencer Tindall

The Intro

Emerging threats and technology necessitate boots on the ground to adapt training and resources to meet mission requirements while adapting to resource and manpower constraints. As the United States Northern Command operational environment evolves, a multidisciplinary approach to law enforcement is required to maintain unit readiness and operational tempo. The complexity and disposition of the Fort Gordon, Georgia law enforcement community necessitate interoperability. With limited resources and personnel, our community law enforcement must be trained and evaluated holistically and more frequently.

The Team

Fort Gordon, Georgia is home to the United States Army Cyber Center of Excellence. The installation has numerous law enforcement agencies on post, including a law enforcement activity, the Law Enforcement Center, home to the Department of the Army civilian police, Department of the Army Criminal Investigation Division Fort Gordon resident agency, Defense Health Agency security, Department of the Army Security Guards, and National Security Agency police. While each organization has a director, chief, or commander, none of those command hierarchies are synergized. In the spring of 2025, all parties came to the table to understand the mission of each adjacent unit. Simultaneously, they ensured integrated, layered, and redundant security while acknowledging each other’s challenges. This effort enabled collaboration on training objectives, allowing a perceived weakness to be a pillar of strength.

The Problem

The one-size-fits-most law enforcement activity Table of Distributions and Allowances for Training and Doctrine Command installations has resulted in potential conflict should a significant Active Shooter/Hostile Event Response event arise. The blueprint outlined for the law enforcement activities reduced the number of basic patrol Soldiers and Department of the Army civilian police authorized by both law enforcement activity and Garrison Tables of Distributions and Allowances. This leaves most Training and Doctrine Command law enforcement activities with little choice but to operate on 12-hour shifts to meet mission requirements, contrasting with the Training and Doctrine Command base order. This constrains the ability of the law enforcement activity Commander and Department of the Army civilian police Chief of Police to conduct well-resourced, realistic, and rigorous training toward collective tasks. Although creative plans have been implemented to accomplish the basic Annual Law Enforcement Compliance Program training, constraints have created an environment that simply “checks the box,” rather than preparing all law enforcement on the installation for the risks they may face.

Asher Events Explained

Direct action units conduct significant training cycles to conduct cordon and search missions. They spend countless hours over the course of a training cycle rehearsing with their organic fire team or squad. This mitigates the high-risk nature of close-quarters battle. Active Shooter/Hostile Event Response is arguably higher risk than generic close-quarters battle. Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training active shooter response level 1, the nationally recognized standard for Active Shooter/Hostile Event Response, teaches techniques for as few as two officers to clear a structure to find and neutralize an active threat. These first two officers may be a criminal investigation division agent and a local sheriff’s office school resource officer who have never met or worked together. There is no trust or shared understanding of task accomplishment. Unlike a Special Reaction Team, which trains together like a direct action unit, our patrols need far more than one classroom exposure a year to do this task. Bridging the gap with different local agencies in universally recognized training is vital to containing and shortening the duration of the incident.

Historically, at an Active Shooter/Hostile Event Response event, all local, state, and federal law enforcement officers respond to support the host law enforcement department or agency. During the Washington Naval Yard shooting, 117 officers from five agencies entered the building to search for the gunman. During the Robb Elementary School shooting, over 375 local, state, and federal law enforcement officers arrived to support the law enforcement response. Department of the Army law enforcement assets must be interoperable to support such an event. This includes being able to shoot, move, and communicate among intergovernmental agency law enforcement officer partners.

Our Solution

At Fort Gordon, Georgia, the Cyber Center of Excellence law enforcement activity is driving an integrated Fort Gordon initiative to integrate all federal, state, and local law enforcement officer partners. Cyber Center of Excellence law enforcement activity, in coordination with the local Criminal Investigation Division field office, plans and coordinates active shooter training between National Security Agency Police, Criminal Investigation Division, military police, Department of the Army civilian police, and Richmond County Sheriff’s Office. This training, facilitated by subject matter experts from Richmond County Sheriff’s Office, Criminal Investigation Division, and the military police, fosters critical communication over response tactics, techniques, and procedures for Active Shooter/Hostile Event Response events. Training is held off-post at Richmond County’s premier active shooter training site, which is a decommissioned county school. This training site facilitates fundamental close-quarters battle and Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training with sim-munitions, I-E-D simulators, foreign area debris common to schools and public spaces, reduced sight lines, low-light areas, fire alarms, and smoke. This initiative ensures that when an Active Shooter/Hostile Event Response event happens and seconds matter, our local law enforcement partners are trained to meet it as a unified force.

This joint-training initiative has led to personnel from each individual organization developing tactics, techniques, and procedures for actions on the objective during an Active Shooter/Hostile Event Response event. In March 2025, the law enforcement activity and Criminal Investigation Division hosted a weeklong training on the fundamentals of close-quarters battle training. The instruction began the walk phase of the initiative. In August 2025, Richmond County Sheriff’s Office hosted a weeklong Active Shooter/Hostile Event Response force-on-force training at their active shooter training site. This training was built on the fundamentals of close-quarters battle by introducing new stimuli and enabling cooperation among National Security Agency police, Criminal Investigation Division, Richmond County Sheriff’s Office, Department of the Army civilian police, and military police. In 2026, the law enforcement activity plans on hosting additional joint training to refine tactics, techniques, and procedures and reinforce Active Shooter/Hostile Event Response under stress.

Force-Wide Application

Fort Gordon, Georgia law enforcement officer recommends a similar approach to Active Shooter/Hostile Event Response event training at each Department of War installation, which is likely to have an interagency law enforcement response to an Active Shooter/Hostile Event Response event to overcome the limitations of force structure, mitigate risk from uncoordinated joint Active Shooter/Hostile Event Response tactics, techniques, and procedures, and increase response efficiency. We recommend that United States Military Police School seriously consider the options of making Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training instructor training a military police additional skill identifier or creating a condensed “Master Close-Quarters Battle Instructor Course” with an associated additional skill identifier. In addition, these additional skill identifiers should be added to the Table of Distributions and Allowances authorizations for each law enforcement activity. Through adaptation to emergent threats, Department of War installation integrated law enforcement teams will be ready and capable of handling an Active Shooter/Hostile Event Response event.