Sonoma’s police chief emphasizes training, public engagement in emergency scenarios

Sonoma Police Chief Orlando Rodriguez believes his force can keep Sonoma safe, but advises everyone has a role to play.|

Homeland security

Run, Hide, Fight is the recommended response for everyone who finds themselves in an ‘active shooter’ situation, according to the Dept. of Homeland Security’s website,

Ready.Gov.

A two-page Active Shooter Information Sheet is available for download at

https://www.fema.gov/media-library/assets/documents/162146.

Other recommended responses in a total of 30 emergency situations are also addressed at Ready.gov, from avalanche and bioterrorism to volcanoes and wildfire.

In the wake of random gun violence at public gatherings, schools and workplaces across the United States, Sonoma – like every community across the country – is concerned about public safety. Police Chief Orlando Rodriguez, who has headed Sonoma’s police department since July of 2018, understands those concerns, but is adamant that the police force is prepared.

“We want to make this community feel safe, and they are safe,” said Rodriguez. “Our community must feel safe in their homes, businesses and schools to be productive members of society.”

Rodriguez, who has been in law enforcement for over 25 years, sees the responsibilities of the department as much larger, and more subtle, than writing speeding tickets and managing the inebriated. Key among those are educating the public about the steps that they can take to assure their own safety and security.

Or, as Rodriguez likes to put it, “It starts with you.” He’s an advocate of the “if you see something, say something” rule, calling on the community to be the eyes and ears of the police, helping manage not only potential gun violence but domestic violence, issues of mental health and even high-risk drivers.

The chief believes that residents are the best people to serve this role, defining suspicious activity as “anyone or anything that seems out of place or is not normal activity in your neighborhood or area.”

Naturally that goes for students, too. Even though a Community Service Officer from the department is assigned to the high school, administrators are also taught how to recognize the signs of potential trouble: changes in attitude, erratic behavior, lack of focus or family stresses among other indicators.

A lieutenant in the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office, which is contracted by the City of Sonoma to provide police services, Rodriguez says that the department’s training has been a never-ending process since he joined the force in 1999.

Deputies get quarterly six-hour training classes and updates on defense tactics, case law and firearms training – in addition to annual training blocks over three 10-hour days at the sheriff’s Los Guilicos facility. It is at those three-day training blocks where they receive the most recent, and intensive training in various scenarios of situations that can turn deadly.

For the citizen who hasn’t had the opportunity of law enforcement training, Ready.gov is the place to go on the web to find out how to respond to emergency situations. Thirty of them are listed, including Avalanche, Earthquakes Floods and tornadoes, but also Bioterrorism, Radiological Dispersion Device and, at the top of the alphabetical list, Active Shooter.

Part of a national public service campaign launched in 2003 “to educate and empower the American people to prepare for, respond to and mitigate emergencies,” Ready.gov is an official website of the Department of Homeland Security. It’s translated into a number of languages, including in Spanish (ready.gov/es) as well as in French, Arabic, Russian and eight others.

An active shooter is defined as “an individual engaged in attempting to kill people in a confined space or populated area,” reads FEMA’s information sheet on the crisis. “Active shooters typically use firearms and have no pattern to their selection of victims.” This is not reassuring, and it’s not meant to be.

The basic message for the Active Shooter situation is this: “Run. Hide. Fight.”

Run: If you’re far enough away from a dangerous situation, get farther away. That means knowing the exits and other means of escape even before a situation develops, so you’re able to respond quickly.

Hide: Find cover, “preferably behind something that could stop a bullet,” wisely advises a CNN story from May. If it’s a room that naturally means at least locking if not barricading the doors, all of them; if it’s under a piece of furniture, make yourself invisible and silence all devices.

Fight: This is the toughest advice to follow, though it’s the logical last resort. Jump the shooter with anything at hand – chairs, scissors, fire extinguishers, anything. And “Be prepared to cause severe or lethal injury to the shooter,” as the Ready.gov website advises.

That’s a different message than one long propagated around active shooters, that the best thing to do was run and hide or go into “lockdown” mode. But even though it’s a big ask to “fight” even in dire circumstances, it has proved effective at delaying or stopping an active shooter, though often at the cost of the responder’s life.

The passengers on Flight 93 instinctively followed this advice, rushed the 9/11 hijackers and caused the jet to crash – killing all aboard but possibly saving more lives had the plane reached its intended target, whatever it was.

The three American tourists on a French train car in 2015 who jumped an armed terrorist and disarmed him, preventing a potential mass murder, is another example, said Rodriguez. But both of these situations call for a rare and hard-to-train for response – to take action as if it’s one’s last act of survival.

Which it could be.

Contact Christian at christian.kallen@sonomanews.com.

In the wake of random gun violence at public gatherings, schools and workplaces across the United States, Sonoma – like every community across the country – is concerned about public safety. Police Chief Orlando Rodriguez, who has headed Sonoma’s police department since July of 2018, understands those concerns, but is adamant that the police force is prepared.

With its low crime rate and active commmunity, Sonoma is a safe community, said Rodriguez. “We want to make this community feel safe and we actively prepare to be ready to respond if necessary.”

Rodriguez, who has been in law enforcement for over 25 years, sees the responsibilities of the department as much larger, and more subtle, than writing speeding tickets and managing the inebriated. Key among those are educating the public about the steps that they can take to assure their own safety and security.

Or, as Rodriguez likes to put it, “It starts with you.” He’s an advocate of the “if you see something, say something” rule, calling on the community to be the eyes and ears of the police, helping manage not only potential gun violence but domestic violence, issues of mental health and even high-risk drivers.

The chief believes that residents are the best people to serve this role, defining suspicious activity as “anyone or anything that seems out of place or is not normal activity in your neighborhood or area.”

Naturally that goes for students, too. Even though a School Resource Officer from the department is assigned to the high school, administrators are also taught how to recognize the signs of potential trouble: changes in attitude, erratic behavior, lack of focus or family stresses among other indicators.

A lieutenant in the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office, which is contracted by the City of Sonoma to provide police services, Rodriguez says that the department’s training has been a never-ending process since he joined the force in 1999.

Deputies get quarterly six-hour training classes and updates on defense tactics, case law and firearms training – in addition to annual training blocks over three 10-hour days at the sheriff’s Los Guilicos facility. It is at those three-day training blocks where they receive the most recent, and intensive training in various scenarios of situations that can turn deadly.

For the citizen who hasn’t had the opportunity of law enforcement training, Ready.gov is the place to go on the web to find out how to respond to emergency situations. Thirty of them are listed, including Avalanche, Earthquakes Floods and tornadoes, but also Bioterrorism, Radiological Dispersion Device and, at the top of the alphabetical list, Active Shooter.

Part of a national public service campaign launched in 2003 “to educate and empower the American people to prepare for, respond to and mitigate emergencies,” Ready.gov is an official website of the Department of Homeland Security. It’s translated into a number of languages, including in Spanish (ready.gov/es) as well as in French, Arabic, Russian and eight others.

An active shooter is defined as “an individual engaged in attempting to kill people in a confined space or populated area,” reads FEMA’s information sheet on the crisis. “Active shooters typically use firearms and have no pattern to their selection of victims.” This is not reassuring, and it’s not meant to be.

The basic message for the Active Shooter situation is this: “Run. Hide. Fight.”

Run: If you’re far enough away from a dangerous situation, get farther away. That means knowing the exits and other means of escape even before a situation develops, so you’re able to respond quickly.

Hide: Find cover, “preferably behind something that could stop a bullet,” wisely advises a CNN story from May. If it’s a room that naturally means at least locking if not barricading the doors, all of them; if it’s under a piece of furniture, make yourself invisible and silence all devices.

Fight: This is the toughest advice to follow, though it’s the logical last resort. Jump the shooter with anything at hand – chairs, scissors, fire extinguishers, anything. And “Be prepared to cause severe or lethal injury to the shooter,” as the Ready.gov website advises.

That’s a different message than one long propagated around active shooters, that the best thing to do was run and hide or go into “lockdown” mode. But even though it’s a big ask to “fight” even in dire circumstances, it has proved effective at delaying or stopping an active shooter, though often at the cost of the responder’s life.

The passengers on Flight 93 instinctively followed this advice, rushed the 9/11 hijackers and caused the jet to crash – killing all aboard but possibly saving more lives had the plane reached its intended target, whatever it was.

The three American tourists on a French train car in 2015 who jumped an armed terrorist and disarmed him, preventing a potential mass murder, is another example, said Rodriguez. But both of these situations call for a rare and hard-to-train for response – to take action as if it’s one’s last act of survival.

Which it could be.

Contact Christian at christian.kallen@sonomanews.com.

Homeland security

Run, Hide, Fight is the recommended response for everyone who finds themselves in an ‘active shooter’ situation, according to the Dept. of Homeland Security’s website,

Ready.Gov.

A two-page Active Shooter Information Sheet is available for download at

https://www.fema.gov/media-library/assets/documents/162146.

Other recommended responses in a total of 30 emergency situations are also addressed at Ready.gov, from avalanche and bioterrorism to volcanoes and wildfire.

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