State Troopers Continue Active Shooter Response Training

More Oklahoma Highway Patrol Troopers are getting trained on how to deal with an active shooter.

Dozens of troopers got hands-on training for active shooter situations Thursday in McAlester.

"This is going to be a search to contact so we've been dispatched to an active shooter but there is no stimuli yet, we are trying to find a threat and that's what you'll see here," Trooper Eric Foster said.

Foster said after a couple of days in the classroom, troopers are ready to run through several real-life scenarios.

"The Oklahoma Highway Patrol has been trained in active shooter response for a long time, but this really kind of gives new techniques, new situational knowledge that we have from other situations that have happened," he said.

OHP said it's important to get all law enforcement on the same page when it comes to active shooters.

"If we can all react together and respond the same way, we're way ahead of the curve as far as being effective," said Foster.

The training is done by a group from Louisiana State University that travels the country to teach training like this.

Trainer Joe Voket said the idea is to train every trooper in Oklahoma so they can teach other law enforcement in their communities.

"It's cool, it's a cool thing to see everybody on one sheet of music for consistency and continuity in training its really nice to see that happening," said Voket.

He said troopers come out of this training ready to handle these tense situations.

"It's as realistic as we can make it, ya know we're using blank ammunition, we're using live role players," said Voket.

OHP said every trooper in the state will complete this training by the end of the year