UT Austin: Proof Positive That Training, Relationships and Technology Pay Off

An active shooter incident in September tested the effectiveness of the drills, tabletop exercises, partnerships, student and staff emergency training, and technology upgrades implemented by this large Texas university.

On Sept. 28, a University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) student ran down a street just adjacent to his school, shooting an AK-47 into the air and into the ground. Only minutes later he ran into a library on campus where he took his own life.

We now know that the gunman did not want to kill anyone except himself. For the UT Austin administrators and police who were there when the incident was first reported, however, the concern was that it could turn into a mass shooting. The school had experienced one in 1966, where 16 lives were lost and many more individuals were injured. Was this a repeat of that horrible event? Initially, UT Austin administrators and law enforcement officers did not know.

Click here to view UT Austin shooting incident timeline.

Also, authorities were concerned that the gunman might have had an accomplice who was still on the loose. Campus officials weren’t going to take any chances.

Fortunately, law enforcement and university staff and administrators had undergone training, had good working relationships with each other, as well as with other agencies, had appropriate plans, had a layered mass notification system and had a trained student population that was prepared to respond appropriately.
[IMAGE]1551[/IMAGE]

Recent Active Shooter Exercises Prepare Entire Campus
Just a month before the tragedy, UT Austin’s police department (UTPD) conducted an active shooter exercise with the Austin Police Department (APD) and Travis County Sheriff. The drill was full-blown, having been conducted in some buildings on campus that were scheduled to be demolished. The drill even involved Simunition training ammunition.

Law enforcement, however, wasn’t the only stakeholder that had prepared for an active shooter incident. In August, other university stakeholders participated in a tabletop exercise.

“I worry about what the rest of the campus can do so the chief and his officers can get done what they need to get done,” says UT Austin Associate Vice President for Safety and Security Dr. Gerald Robert Harkins. “We’ve got to make sure we provide our 70,000 people with the best instructions we can.”

This means that the students and other office staff are also trained. UT Austin uses the “Shots Fired” video so they will know what to do should an active shooter come on campus.

Another video trains students and staff to know what to look for when a student, employee or faculty member may be at risk for harming themselves or others. The video complements the university’s Behavior Concerns Advice Line (BCAL), which allows campus constituents to report at-risk individuals. The line receives approximately 230 calls per semester.

Of course, it helps that UT Austin has a culture on campus that supports safety and security.

“We’ve done drills on campus, and no one blows them off,” says UTPD Chief Robert Dahlstrom. “I think everyone realizes that we’d better practice because it may happen some day. The attitude campus-wide has been ‘Now we know what to do. We’ll keep having you come back to talk to our groups because we take it seriously.’”

UT Austin maintains this culture by having monthly campus safety and security meetings that involve representatives from all parts of the campus. Additionally, the university tests its emergency communication systems every month, which helps to remind students and staff to keep safety and security top of mind.
[IMAGE]1552[/IMAGE]

Agencies Frequently Work Together at Football Games
On the public safety side of things, every time there is a home football game (which usually has more than 100,000 attendees), UTPD, emergency preparedness, health and safety, facilities, parking/transportation, fire prevention and safety, public affairs, HR, student affairs and many other internal campus stakeholders all work side by side in the command post. External stakeholders, such as APD, Travis County Sheriff, the Austin Fire Department, EMS, FBI, DHS and the Joint Terrorism Task Force, also participate.

“After about seven or eight years and logging about 1,000 hours, you really get to know everyone very well,” says UT Austin Director of Emergency Preparedness David Cronk.

Because internal and external public safety personnel knew each other on a first-name basis, during the Sept. 28 event, the incident command post ran smoothly. According to Dahlstrom, it also helped that egos didn’t get in the way.

“I think the biggest key was everyone left their rank at the door,” he says. “There were lieutenants telling assistant chiefs ‘This is what we need to do,’ and they got it done. It wasn’t, ‘You can’t tell me that because you’re just a lieutenant or a commander.’”

UTPD’s training, as well as its relationships with other law enforcement agencies also paid dividends during the officers’ initial pursuit of the gunman.

“On a good day, I have six police officers on campus, and I need more officers than that, so we have to be able to work with these other teams,” says Dahlstrom. “The key to that is uniformity and training. That way, you can mix teams and go through a building and everyone knows what you are doing.”

Having interoperable radios also helps, according to Harkins.
“We’ve integrated our radio system with the regional radio system so we can carry the same radios that APD, Travis County Sheriff, the fire department and EMS carry,” he says. “We can move to an interoperable frequency.”

If you appreciated this article and want to receive more valuable industry content like this, click here to sign up for our FREE digital newsletters!

About the Author

robin hattersley headshot
Contact:

Robin has been covering the security and campus law enforcement industries since 1998 and is a specialist in school, university and hospital security, public safety and emergency management, as well as emerging technologies and systems integration. She joined CS in 2005 and has authored award-winning editorial on campus law enforcement and security funding, officer recruitment and retention, access control, IP video, network integration, event management, crime trends, the Clery Act, Title IX compliance, sexual assault, dating abuse, emergency communications, incident management software and more. Robin has been featured on national and local media outlets and was formerly associate editor for the trade publication Security Sales & Integration. She obtained her undergraduate degree in history from California State University, Long Beach.

Leading in Turbulent Times: Effective Campus Public Safety Leadership for the 21st Century

This new webcast will discuss how campus public safety leaders can effectively incorporate Clery Act, Title IX, customer service, “helicopter” parents, emergency notification, town-gown relationships, brand management, Greek Life, student recruitment, faculty, and more into their roles and develop the necessary skills to successfully lead their departments. Register today to attend this free webcast!

Get Our Newsletters
Campus Safety Conference promo