Officers complete classroom, practical safety training

Members of the Ashley County Sheriff’s Office and some of the Crossett Police Department’s officers engaged in the training exercises, which ran over a two-day span, for eight hours each day. 

Cruce said they had instructional time in the classroom, as well as out. 

The practical portion involved an active-shooter scenario that took place inside the high school, in which members of law enforcement engaged with people acting as targets using air-soft rifles that were nearly identical to the weapons the officers would be using in a real-life scenario. 

Cruce said the department spent about $2,000 for the weapons, the BBs, and the CO2 used to operate the air guns, and that they were even given a discount.

Cruce said he got the idea from the animal control officer, who had used those types of weapons while receiving training during his previous employment, with the University of Arkansas at Monticello.

Cruce said one might not think that the use of weapons that are so similar to the ones that they use on a daily basis during training exercises would be important, but that it makes a big difference. 

The chief said that years ago, when school shootings such as the one at Virginia Tech took place, law enforcement learned a hard lesson —that the way they had been trained up to that point to handle such a situation was wrong. 

Cruce said that’s when the law enforcement community learned they go in, no matter what. 

Crossett Mayor Crystal Marshall asked if the officers had also held training inside Crossett Middle School, and Cruce said that they only trained at the high school. 

He said that the officers all participated in a walk-through of the middle school in order to familiarize themselves with the layout of the school. 

One reason Cruce gave for why they did not engage in exercises inside the Junior High School was the mess that the BBs from the Air-Soft guns make—thousands of BBs spread out on the floor, and all had to be cleaned up afterwards.

The officers that led the training exercises have extensive active shooter training experience, said Cruce. 

The training apparently made an impact on Council member Sheila Phillips, who works in the school system and said that she and others went back to their classrooms and started examining the windows to see if they needed to remove things that might have been obstructing the view in case law enforcement officers needed to see inside.

Marshall thanked Cruce and his department for taking the time to engage in such training to benefit the safety of the students of the Crossett School District.

Marshall said it meant a lot to her as Mayor, but she also recognized that to parents it probably means more.