Active Attack Integrated Response Training at Missoula College

Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) - Several Missoula city and county law enforcement agencies are at both the Missoula College east and west campus locations conducting Active Attack Integrated Response training scenarios this week.

I spoke with University of Montana Police Chief Brad Giffin about the training.

Active Attack Integrated Response Group Training at Missoula College

“This is our Active Attack Integrated Response Group, which is a group that contains all law enforcement agencies, Missoula Fire (Department), (Missoula) Rural Fire Departments, Missoula Emergency Services, basically all of the emergency medical people,” began Chief Giffin.

Chief Giffin said the training is based on a response to an active shooter scenario.

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The Training is to Simulate an Active Shooter Scenario

“It’s per best practice under the Alert Standard of Response to an active shooter,” he said. “We try to do this once a year, where we bring in a group of folks for training in a classroom setting. Day one, which was yesterday (Monday), and then today (Tuesday), that same group goes out to an area that we've designated for scenario-based training, and they run them through several different scenarios as it would pertain to an active shooter.”

Chief Giffin said law enforcement and emergency responders utilize ‘moulage’, which is specialized makeup to imitate real-time wounds and injuries from an active shooter.

Moulage is Specialized Makeup to Simulate Actual Gunshot or Knife Wounds

“Moulage is just a way to make things a little bit more real,” he said. “They're fake injuries, and they're injuries that would mimic, perhaps, somebody who has an injury due to being shot. Many of those (scenarios) have the ability to push out a little bit of blood, and it's all for the purpose of our people being able to train in an environment that's as real as possible and still not have anybody injured.”

Chief Giffin provided more details as to the training locations.

“The classroom portions are at our East Campus, and that was yesterday (Monday), and then we'll do another one on Thursday,” he said. “Then the scenario-based training is all out of our West Campus. Since there's nobody really out there right now, we have access to pretty much the entire facility to set up different scenarios for our folks to run through, and that is today, and then it'll be conducted again on Friday.”

The public received an alert from the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office that the training will be at both the Missoula College East and West campuses.