A big step is happening when it comes to safeguarding schools and public spaces in Texas.
MAXWELL, Texas — For two-and-a-half decades, the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Center, also known as ALERRT, at Texas State University has been training hundreds of thousands of first responders.
Their aim is to provide the best research-based active shooter response training in the nation.
John Curnutt is the assistant executive director for the ALERRT Center.
“Ninety-eight percent of the training that we do as a program is mobile training teams going out across the country, cracking open some kit and training in people’s backyards,” Curnutt said.
Curnutt lists one of his biggest challenges when it comes to preparing people for confrontation.
“We just never get enough time, and we can’t do frequent, intense training to get somebody conditioned for that,” Curnutt said.
To expand its training facility in Hays County, the ALERRT Center got nearly $25 million in new state funding. With the money, Curnutt said they will be able to build new facilities at their training site in Maxwell and be able to bring people to one place to replicate real-life scenarios.
“So the reality of breaking a door, breaking through a window, getting inside of a building and having blood,” Curnutt said. “You know, be present so that we can get people desensitized and ready for just how gory and chaotic a situation is. The more we train for reality, the better we are performing under realistic conditions.”
With mass shootings on the rise, James Keith, who is also with ALERRT, wants to take training to the next level.
“We realize that these attacks haven’t stopped. They have evolved. So our training and our methods have to evolve as well,” Keith said.
Curnutt’s hope is to also improve detecting and preventing these tragedies from happening.
“More intense, more frequent, more often,” Curnutt said. “We got to do more.”
Cutnutt said it will take a few more months to get details ironed out for the facility. Once the Texas State School Board approves it, they will start construction.