On April 26, 2016, Guard911® and Hero911® partnered with Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois, to enact a live, active-shooter terrorist scenario using the mobile panic button app, CampusGuard911™.
In this informative article, learn how the college, which was the first Ready-to-Respond Campus in the nation as designated by the Illinois Emergency Management Agency (IEMA), held a realistic intruder training drill with CampusGuard911 and Hero911, and how the mobile panic button app solution performed to help save many lives.
The Augustana College Active Shooter Training Enactment
Augustana College campus police organized the training. The dean of students, faculty members, and 300 students were brought into the campus theater to participate. A speaker was there to simulate a presentation to the student body. Approximately 100 of the students were decorated in “moulage,” the makeup used to simulate a genuine medical emergency. The 100 students were also provided with a tag to wear around their necks that described their injuries. These ranged from minor cuts and bruises to fatal injuries.
When the lights were lowered and the speaker began to talk, a shadowy figure dressed in all black and a black baseball cap (an actual off-duty police officer) disappeared behind the stage and then came out firing (blanks) at the speaker and into the crowd. The moulaged students all played their parts as directed, screaming in agony, and draping themselves over chairs; some just lied “dead” on the floor.
The other students made their way to two side exits on either side of the theater, piling up at either door – “fish in a barrel” for the shooter. The shooter dropped 127 rounds (blanks) from his handgun in about 17 seconds. The campus police, already in the theater, then took down the shooter.
Guard911’s CampusGuard911 panic button app was used to notify 911 dispatchers and simultaneously alert the Hero911 network of nearby law enforcement officers. Of the officers not already on scene that were notified via the Hero911 app, the first officer responded in 21 seconds that he was en route.
Guard911 panic button apps go beyond what any other panic button solution can do. They offer the ONLY federally approved, FREE app for the Hero911® network of over 67,000 federal, state, and local officers who can be there fast when the mobile app button is activated. There is no better solution When Seconds Save Lives®.
Proven Time and Again – Panic Button Apps Work When Seconds Save Lives®
According to Homeland Security, it takes 4-11 minutes for a 911 call to be processed and first responders dispatched, and 4-18 minutes for a first responder to be on the scene and act. Most mass shootings are over in under ten minutes.
– In 2017, at the First Baptist Church shooting in rural Sutherland Springs, Texas, the killer fired 700 rounds in 11 minutes, killing twenty-six and severely wounding 20 others. He was gone by the time officers arrived.
– In the 2018 Parkland, Florida, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooting, the killer shot 21 victims in 1 minute, 39 seconds, fatally injuring nine right then. All told, seventeen people lost their lives in mere minutes that day.
At Augustana College, after police arrived and cleared the building, EMTs arrived and proceeded to diagnose and treat each student; they took the ones they could save to six nearby hospitals for (simulated) treatment. At no fault of their own, by the time SWAT got into all of their gear and arrived on scene, nearly 25 minutes had passed. They swept the facility and confirmed that no other shooters were present.
The CampusGuard911 panic button app and the free Hero911 officer mobile app solutions performed flawlessly. Had this been an actual emergency, together they would have saved many of the 100 moulaged students.
Keep Your Schools, Colleges, and Universities Safe this Year
Schools, colleges, and universities – it’s time to implement mobile app solutions to keep your students and faculty safe. SchoolGuard® and CampusGuard911 apps are extremely simple, affordable, and effective. They are the fastest and easiest way to reduce notification and response times and save lives in any emergency, especially when you need it the most – during an active killer situation.
If your organization is interested in a Guard911 panic button solution to take back control of your safety, contact our helpful team today for a no-obligation conversation.
Panic button technology is so effective, Alyssa’s Law mandates the installation of panic alarms that are directly linked to law enforcement in all K-12 schools. Are you ready?
