TROY — The Troy Police Department is preparing for an active shooter situation, but their training wasn’t in a school. The department borrowed a bus from Troy City Schools, geared up, and trained for several hours.
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News Center 7′s Mason Fletcher spoke with Sgt. John Marshall about the importance of the training.
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“With today’s society the way it is, we just have to train for every scenario,” Marshall said.
Marshall has been with the department for 26 years and led the training. Inside the bus, a newer officer had a different job, the ‘bad guy.’
“It’s not on the road yet, and he’s going to be our bad guy for the day,” Marshall said.
The officers, dressed in full gear, practiced walking alongside the bus, getting the doors open, and finding the bad guy. They practiced this routine more than a dozen times.
“We take it very seriously. We want to make sure that, you know, the school’s covered, the citizens are covered. That’s important to us,” Marshall said.
Marshall said getting the school bus was important to the training, and the district made it easy.
The crew was able to find the fastest way to get the door open, something they wouldn’t have been able to do without the bus.
“Just knowing where we’re going,” Marshall said. “Out of the school, or the bus in this fact, it helps.”
Troy City Schools Superintendent Chris Piper said he didn’t know what the training was for when he was asked for the bus. He also said it means a lot that the department is prioritizing student safety.
“They have such great relationships with our kids and are not just standing guard, but they’re an integral part of our schools,” Piper said.
In December, the school district put in new active shooter alarms after they had two false alarms.
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