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(TNS) — Looking to make sure they are as prepared as possible during a hostile shooter situation, first responders from nearly a dozen communities spent the weekend training with Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT) instructors at Pentucket Regional/Middle High School.
“I think it’s extremely important. You never know when something like this is going to happen, or where, or how, but as first responders, we can control how we prepare and train our people to respond to these types of events,” Merrimac police Chief Eric Shears said.
First responders from Merrimac, West Newbury, Newbury, Georgetown, Topsfield, Salisbury, Newburyport, Revere, Boston, Melrose and Haverhill took part in the training, as well as members of the state police.
“About 17 police, one dispatcher and 21 firefighters/EMTs,” Shears said.
West Newbury fire Chief Mike Dwyer, who hosted the training, said it covered a bit of everything, from lectures to full drills with props and command posts set up outside the building.
“Learning the basics and then practicing. Just sort of a very simple scenario, up to graduating with a very complex scenario that gets everybody’s heart rate up and teaches them how to respond to stress, which is part of police, fire, any EMS,” Dwyer said
The ALERRT Center at Texas State University was created in 2002 as a partnership between Texas State University, the San Marcos, Texas, Police Department, and the Hays County, Texas, Sheriff’s Office to address the need for active shooter response training for first responders. In 2013, ALERRT at Texas State was named the National Standard in Active Shooter Response Training by the FBI, according to alerrt.org.
Shears served as lead instructor for the class, augmented by six other instructors.
“There are a bunch of us from the area that teach,” he said.
Each day of training began at 8 a.m. and went until 4 p.m.
“It was 16 hours of training total,” he said.
The training had become important since the state adopted the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 3000 Standard for an Active Shooter/Hostile Event Response Program in 2023, Shears said.
The program helps communities holistically organize, manage, communicate, and sustain an active shooter/hostile event preparedness, response, and recovery program, according to nfpa.org.
The world’s first active shooter standard, NFPA 3000 was developed by representatives from law enforcement, the fire service, emergency medical services, hospitals, emergency management, private security, private business, the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and the Department of Justice.
Dwyer said he was thrilled to see such a strong turnout.
“It’s great for team building. And you know, the world we’re in right now — it is violent and we need to do everything we can to keep our communities safe,” he said.
Groveland fire Chief Bob Valentine said his department took full advantage of the opportunity.
“I thought it was very intense, very impressive. And I think that the 10 Groveland firefighters got a great deal of knowledge and education out of it,” Valentine said.
It was especially important to have police and fire doing the training together.
“I mean, police do it with police at times,” he said. “Fire does training with fire at times other times, but the police and fire together I think is huge because we are all on the same team and we should train together as a team.”
© 2025 The Salem News (Beverly, Mass.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
