Local Officials Discuss Training and Safety For Community

ZANESVILLE, Ohio – With two mass shootings over the past weekend, one in Dayton and one in Texas…local law enforcement is highlighting the safety measures they take in order to keep the community safe.

Zanesville Police Chief, Tony Coury said over the past few years the Police Department has been trained to assess and immediately find the threat in the emergency of an active shooter situation. ZPD has trained within the Zanesville City Schools and other buildings on a scenario based training. Coury said ZPD tries to make a presence within the community, and they always encourage “see something, say something.”

“The first responders are going to run towards the threat. You have seen that, or you saw that this past weekend in Dayton. That’s what these guys are trained for and hopefully that never happens here, but if it does I believe we’re ready. We have measures in place to deal with these types of situations,” Chief Coury said.

Muskingum County Sheriff Matt Lutz said in an active shooter event, people should practice the ALICE training. ALICE is alert, lockdown, inform, counter, and evacuate. Sheriff Lutz also said their Office practices the RAIDER training, which stands for rapid deployment, assessment, intervention, decisiveness, EMS, and recovery. It is for law enforcement with the idea behind it being a quick response to the situation and neutralizing the threat.

“I just think that you have to be as alert and prepared as you can be, and that’s some of the training that we try to do with our folks. The biggest training that we do is we try to remind our guys that the first, top priority is to neutralize the threat. And they’re taught not to wait, they’re taught not to regroup, they’re taught not to worry about injuries,” Sheriff Lutz said.

Local law enforcement exercise the importance of keeping the community safe and that it is their number one priority.