EPPD continues active-shooter preparedness efforts

Officers return to city hall to offer a timely refresher course on protocols

By Mike Rego
Posted 6/29/18

EAST PROVIDENCE — A little over a week prior to the latest workplace mass shooting in the country, when five journalists were murdered in the Capital Gazette newsroom in Annapolis, Maryland on …

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EPPD continues active-shooter preparedness efforts

Officers return to city hall to offer a timely refresher course on protocols

Posted

EAST PROVIDENCE — A little over a week prior to the latest workplace mass shooting in the country, when five journalists were murdered and two others were injured in the Capital Gazette newsroom in Annapolis, Maryland on Thursday, June 28, members of the East Providence Police led by Lieutenant Mark Cadoret were putting employees through paces during a refresher active-shooter training session at City Hall.

EPPD Chief Christopher Parella said the training session wasn’t scheduled for any particular reason except to keep the municipal workers apprised of the latest tactics recommended and utilized by law enforcement. The EPPD regularly plans active-shooting training efforts at city offices, schools and businesses.

“I’m biased, of course, but I think our program is better than any other in the state,” Chief Parella said, who called the department’s active-shooter training team of Lt. Cadoret, Lt. Bill Nelson, Lt. Barry Ramer, Lt. Floyd Gardner and Lt. Ray Blinn, “the best in the business.”

“We not only try to train those people we’re instructing, but we also apply practical principles and skills that can be used in those potentially very stressful situations,” the chief continued.

School buildings, seemingly the source of the most abhorrent acts of mass violence in the country, are always at the forefront of law enforcement’s attempts to educate students and staff in active-shooter protocols.

But the chief also noted some municipal employees, particularly in high-profile buildings like city hall here locally, are quite rightly concerned about safety considering the current political climate in the country where governmental agencies are often the target of vitriolic discourse.

“I want to say this is the third or fourth training we’ve done at city hall. The first time we did it, I don’t think everyone was too enthused. But that sentiment has definitely changed,” Chief Parella added. “They’ve heard all the talk, how they’re referred to as ‘government people,’ like they’re the enemy.

"They’ve seen what’s gone on, and I think some of them are afraid, which is completely understandable. When we do these training sessions now, they listening with bated breathe, which is good. We never want them to face that situation, but we do want them to be prepared as best they can for the unthinkable if it were to ever occur.”

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Jim McGaw

A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.