Policing Matters

There is no national model of police response to active shooter and mass shooting incidents and sometimes we get a less-than-optimum response that invites criticism. It doesn’t help that the public has a dichotomy of expectations from law enforcement: rush in ready to shoot or de-escalate and negotiate, and some agencies are even folding up operations and leaving barricaded suspects if they pose no threat to the public. A new toolkit, supported by a grant from the National Institute of Justice and developed by the RAND Corporation, provides practical strategies and guidance on deterring, mitigating and responding to mass attacks for a variety of audiences, including public safety experts, practitioners, policymakers, community groups and the public. Researchers studied 600 mass attack events and plots, interviewed dozens of experts and reviewed hundreds of references. The team then identified the Mass Attacks Defense Chain, a series of defenses that work together to reduce the probability of mass attacks and