Stalwart Leadership & Training in 2019

After 29 years in professional LE/public safety, the overarching takeaway is this: Training/educating our civilians (Immediate Responders) and First Responders is the most critical component in lessening the impact of theses violent events. Never before has the adage, "Knowledge is power" meant so much.

Article quotes:

"Sheriff Gregory Tony has made training a priority..."

“We look at what just happened two days ago (and) this is why we can’t be complacent and wait for bad things to happen. We have to get ahead of it.” Sheriff Tony

“It’s the repetition and the ability to practice, make some mistakes, do a little bit different scenario with different problems and learn,” he said, adding that they wanted to focus on questions like, “How do we work better with each other? How do we communicate more clearly? And how do we make decisions faster?” Bill Godfrey, lead instructor C3 Pathways

“It’s not just about the getting the bad guy,” Godfrey said. “It’s about that clock. Because someone who’s been injured and is bleeding to death has a limited time and we’ve gotta get to them.”

Ultimately, (Sheriff) Tony wants to make this type of training an annual event for all of BSO’s deputies, approximately 2,500 sworn officers...Tony said the agency is trying to increase training and recover from its response to the Parkland shooting in 2018 while also being prepared for a mass shooting like the ones that occurred over the weekend.

“It’s clear that we came up short in many different roles so by introducing this training and other trainings we’ve done over the past few months, it’s building back up the morale and confidence in the agency,” Tony said. “We look at what just happened two days ago (and) this is why we can’t be complacent and wait for bad things to happen.