As days elapse since the Valentine’s Day mass-murder at a Parkland, Florida high school, the evolution of what many are perceiving as systemic atrophy and inexplicable inaction in the Broward County Sheriff’s Office (BSO) spins incredulously. A Fox News report published on Wednesday, February 28, 2018 colorizes the antithesis of what law enforcement is trained to do in the face of an active-shooter incident. Regardless of any reason, BSO is indelibly on the map of shame.
Revelations highlighting a BSO commander’s order for deputies to “stage” is subject to scrutiny and condemnation while the law enforcement agency’s own policy stipulates protocols and actions counter to what we witnessed as 17 lives were snuffed and 15 others were injured.
Despite the perceived gray area surrounding any “bad command” during the Valentine’s Day massacre, the one sure thing for which there is no debate: Lawsuits will come…and both BSO and the Broward County School District will be named as “Defendants.” The catalysts behind any litigation against Broward County government will not stem from finger-pointing but the veracity from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s thorough investigation and cumulative findings. For the sake of understanding, the FDLE is Florida’s version of the FBI. Having worked with them when I wore a police uniform, they are top-notch law enforcement professionals.
Speaking of veracity, we all saw televised footage of law enforcement officials —some SWAT operators— motioning toward doors and egresses all around the campus. That alone either counters any “stage” allegations or signifies movements were ordered after a stand-still command. If not self-initiated organically, law enforcement investigations encompass all direct or indirect movements by each and every participant who was in any way part of the entire crime scene. Often, cues arise from media reports whose reference is “a source” claiming certain things. FDLE agents have their ears to that wall and include all possibilities, no matter the origin of the assertion.
Fox News writer Matt Finn quoted a “law enforcement source” having reportedly said “It’s atrocious. If deputies were staging it could have cost lives. Every second is another life.” No argument here. But the questions When? and Why? remain at the crux of this dubious police response in Parkland on February 14, 2018.
Comprehending Chaos
Not to weigh one against the other, but the 9/11 conflagration remains an ideal example whereby public safety entities in the throes of their assigned purpose can unwittingly work against itself. The 9/11 Commission Report severely underscored how “public safety communications” were part of the undoing among police, fire, and EMT resources responding to or at the grotesque scene.
The radio system goes haywire in certain unorthodox and catastrophic incidents, and frequencies flooded with hectic radio traffic serve only as a cacophony of undecipherable din, leaving rescue and salvation efforts largely paralyzed.
Using the aforementioned analogy, one may surmise that once the Marjory Stoneman Douglas school shooter unloosed his fusillade, the sole campus school resource officer (now-former BSO Deputy Scot Peterson), was one of many first responders on-scene practically stepping on each other’s toes.
Pertinently: Does radio traffic get thick like a bog?
It surely does. In law enforcement vernacular, it is known as “walking all over each other.” Two or more police personnel in view of each other can see and thus realize that one member is activating his/her radio. Therefore, all others standby until the “air is clear.” But an ample cadre of cops from varied directions spread across one monumental scene spanning multi acres of property are not within view and, logically, are reacting to what they are told or have first-hand knowledge of. Too many folks trying to speak simultaneously equals mush-mouth. Not by design but by default…more mayhem ensues.
A “Bad Command”?
The point of colorizing the aforementioned background is to supply knowledge-base so as to arrive at any modicum of plausibility as to why a BSO commander may have ordered police resources to “stage” and to “set a perimeter.” The notion of a perimeter is common in policing for containment purposes. In the Parkland, Florida scenario…a perimeter of deputies and police officers from neighboring agencies on-scene was likely ordered to disallow any suspect(s) to escape or any outsider to enter with the sole purpose to pick-up the bad actor. That much makes complete sense to me.
Numbers are not yet known, and knowing who was where will be defined by FDLE agents. It looks murky, though. According to the Fox News coverage, “Jeff Bell, the president of the Broward County Sheriff’s Association, said it wasn’t clear how many officers were already on the scene or in the school when the first perimeter and stage command came out [via radio communiques]. But Bell says unless ’50’ officers were already inside then it was a bad command to order staging. ‘If that is the correct log at ten minutes, that we were more concerned with the perimeter than finding the shooter, it was a bad command. It could have stalled our officers or cost lives.'”
Until that is sorted out, though, one thing remains clear. Notwithstanding any communications woes, BSO policy authorizes a green-light approach; deputies are conferred not only autonomy but administrative blessings to go in and neutralize the threat(s). Indeed, that includes killing the killer(s) if warranted (resistance to custodial proceedings).
BSO Policy Mimics the New Normal
The new normal regarding any active-shooter response is a full-fledged thrust to wherever the threat is and to engage the malicious monster where he stands. There is no gray area, no window of wait-time, no second-guessing —other than precedent officer-safety rites. (One may even argue that last point, but we’ll save that for another article topic.)
What exactly is the Broward Sheriff’s Office policy pertaining to active shooter events? What are the standard operating procedures (SOPs) for this kind of horrific event, requiring exigent actions?
Without any inorganic effect, it is best to merely quote the Broward Sheriff’s Office SOPs listed under their Department of Law Enforcement patrol guide:
“If real-time intelligence exists the sole deputy or a team of deputies may enter the building and/or structure to preserve life. A supervisor’s approval or on-site observations are not required for this decision [emphasis added].
“The Deputy Contact Team [as enumerated above, that could be just one deputy] will continue until one of these objectives has been met:
- The subject/s has been forced into a surrender.
- The subject/s has been forced into a barricade.
- The subject/s hostilities have been stopped.
- The Deputy Contact Team is relieved by SWAT personnel.”
The one with slight merit in that batch of four stipulations is #2, since the Parkland school situation may be construed as a barricaded subject…but that theory is entirely negated by the infinite series of shots being fired. There is no time to waste and no reason to idle for any particular reason. Peruse any police forum or thread commenting on the school resource deputy (and now the supposed order to “stage”) and, resoundingly, the phrase “I’d go in!” is like wallpaper with no seam or end in sight. So would I, insubordination and all.
Telecommunications
Times have changed and budgets may have gotten generous enough for some public safety entities to afford telecommunications systems whereby the police/fire/EMT triad are all on the same frequencies when the need to communicate directly arises. But, some agencies are not interconnected and must defer to dispatchers to convey and relay messages during time of dire duress. Bluntly, that wastes time and becomes another frustration on top of a swiftly mounting heap of angst.
To that end, it is possible that the particular BSO commander on-scene who issued the order to “stage” and set-up a perimeter had some granule of knowledge whereby his information-base was compelling enough to command such actions. I’m not one for rhetoric but it bears repeating: The FDLE investigation will dissect and pare-down what went on, when details transpired, and why public safety personnel did or did not perform certain protocols as the debacle within school walls echoed.
Active-shooter training was not born last month, it was the new normal stemming from the Columbine school shooting which, we now know all too well, amassed many bodies because cops on scene waited for specialists: SWAT operators. The clock’s two hands kept moving forward, ticking-away precious seconds and minutes…while the two shooters sprayed bullets…taking precious lives. Since then, the waiting game is no longer part of how cops strategize the active-shooter scene. Explicitly, the very term “active-shooter” is self-defining and engenders a Do something right now! mindset.
Given that the BSO policy regarding active-shooter situations demands immediate response and courageous advance so as to take out the shooter(s), it would seem illogical to “stage.” Whether one or 21 cops are on scene, the reaction is to go in and address evil.
Staging
Ordinarily, staging is done when law enforcement have enough control of a crime scene to then wave-in fire/rescue personnel or other government factions such as medical examiners and forensics specialists. Once the hot-call is reduced to cold nothing, it is safe to come in.
If staging is routinely done by only law enforcement, then why/when would there be reason to stage the cops? How would anyone know when/if it is safe to enter a dwelling rife with trouble. Waiting until the shooting ceases typifies You’re too late! Non-facetiously, why have uniformed, trained men and women with protective firearms if waiting is the strategy? As we stipulated above, waiting is no longer the strategy in clearly-defined active-shooter incidents.
We know better. That is why we often talk and write about heroics. That is when we dwell on character traits to include courage, bravery, nobility, gallantry, and selflessness. Those virtues are human characteristics, but they sure are predominate in police, fire, paramedics, soldiers, nurses and our beloved teachers. In the Parkland school shooting, an athletic team leader, Mr. Aaron Feis, was lost to the shooter’s muzzle. If only that teacher was saved. If only “staged” was in the context of the high school orchestra rehearsing for a performance in the auditorium. If only.
High school football Coach Aaron Feis was shot and killed shielding students in Parkland, Florida on February 14. 2018. (Credit: Facebook/Javier V. Sanchez)With all of this explained and analyzed, it may soften the blow of what remains a twisted mess of law enforcement activities in and around the Parkland school shooting scene. It does not, however, shed any light on why assigned and armed individual Scot Peterson arrived at the building in question and remained outside while the shooting continued inside. Although I was not there that day and at that moment, with relative certainty I can attest the din of gunfire is rather distinct. The shots ringing-out would be somewhat buffered if triggered indoors. Conversely, if outdoors, there is reverberation and “traveling” echoes for several shots.
It is the difference between noise insulated by acoustics (indoors) and open-air repercussion whereby gunfire is akin to rolling thunder. Taking a moment to decipher the origins of gunfire and render decisions is understandable, but with a mélange of gunshots culminating in an inert deputy equates to my point about certain litigation, the indefensible kind. Sadly, Broward County taxpayer dole stands to take a hit (at least 17) because one of its county deputies stood motionless…perhaps at the behest of a BSO commander, perhaps not.
Benefit of the Doubt
The purported BSO command to “stage” and form a perimeter may have been after several minutes and after an as-of-yet unknown exact number of law enforcers entered Building 1200 to confront the shooter. Failing confirmation that deputies and police officers inside Building 1200 located and neutralized the gunman (as per several radio transmissions attest), the commander likely considered closing-off all escape routes, hence calling for a perimeter around the campus.
For example, the actual BSO radio call logs indicate that at 2:34:48 p.m., a BSO commander ordered a deputy to post at a specific location, as follows: “17S1 Stage Side Sawgrass.” I lived in Broward County and Sawgrass is a large, well-traversed parkway. The “17S1” is a particular deputy’s radio designation, a unit number. Recorded, dispatch jots down where everyone posted per radio transmissions so all personnel hear and make note.
Interpretatively, “Stage side Sawgrass” to a cop means no one in/no one out on that route to/from Sawgrass (other than public safety personnel). After all, the entire campus became a crime scene…and securing any such scene is also a means of evidence collection for which the responsibility rests solely with law enforcement.
The Anomaly of Anomalies
As we are universally aware, a sole BSO deputy right at the door to the specific building otherwise known as the killing field…postured as a statue.
Subsequent revelations after the shooting ceased came from a baseball coach to a police officer who broadcast: “POSS STUDENT NICHOLAS CRUSE 43 FROM BASEBALL COACH.” In Florida police parlance, “43” means “information” and, at that moment, it was rather clear the shooter was gone and his identity was known.
Time shall tell. Rather, once concluded…FDLE will shed tons of light on one of our nation’s darkest days…and foreseeable policy amendments may follow suit. Bolded print to earmark readied-response distinctions for law enforcers, should a redux evolve. Technically, we are now reminded of Columbine and why we engineered active-shooter precepts for police. The policing profession knows better. However, the system flowed that infamous day in Parkland, Florida akin to a vascular web impeded by plaque buildup ultimately stifling good-guy success.
Armed teachers and school administrators? Coupled with undying faith in law enforcement confronting growing pains lately, I’m all for it!
