Victim responses to gun crime are commonly summarized by law enforcement in three different ways — “fight, flight or freeze.”
On Monday night, Ohio University Police Department officers taught OU students, faculty and Athens residents how to beneficially respond to active shooter situations, using the ALiCE program.
ALiCE — in its fifth year at OU — stands for “alert, lockdown, inform, counter and escape.”
ALiCE was designed in response to mass shootings at Columbine High School and Virginia Tech, where victim inaction led to avoidable death, said OUPD Capt. Brian Kapple.
“(After Virginia Tech) we stepped back as a law enforcement community and decided that we weren’t the first responders,” Kapple said. “This is why we came up with ALiCE — to get the training out to you and say ‘it’s O.K. to fight back.’”
If students and faculty plan ahead, they will be much more likely to subdue active shooters, he said.
“I want to create a normal response to an abnormal event, no different from how we train our officers,” he said.
Whether the victims are screaming, running away in zig-zags or counterattacking the shooter, they must avoid inaction to stay alive, Kapple said.
It’s particularly important for victims to fight back against active shooters on college campuses, where locking down buildings and classrooms is nearly impossible, said OUPD Chief Andrew Powers.
“It’s important to know that a university campus is not a high school,” Powers said. “You need to think of OU as more of a city.”
Monday night’s demonstration was the program’s first public presentation by OUPD, Powers said, adding that there will be a second program at 7 p.m. on Feb. 27 in Baker University Center Theater.
With one more public ALiCE presentation before spring break, student organizations should coordinate private presentations with OUPD, said Amy K. Miller, a junior studying martial arts studies and president of the OU Mixed Martial Arts Club.
“There definitely needs to be more publicity on campus,” Miller said. “Kids can benefit from this.”
sh335311@ohiou.edu
