 Good morning everybody. Thank you for coming. My name is Sargent Jason Robelard. I'm a relations officer with the Vancouver Police Department. The Vancouver Police Department has teamed up with partners to create a rally-based video to inform citizens about what to do when they face an active deadly threat. The video breaks down an active deadly threat situation and walks the viewer through a series of likely scenarios and survival tests. I'd like to introduce Chief Constable Adam Palmer who will come up here momentarily to introduce the video. The chief will be available for related questions after we play the video for you. It will also be available online and on our website. If you would like to speak with any of our community partners they will be available here in the media room. We have representatives from Ecom, Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services, BC Emergency Health Services and the Vancouver Police Foundation. Please see the list on the wall here for the proper spelling and titles of our community partners. Once this event is concluded I will also be available for any unrelated media inquiries. Thank you. Chief. Thanks Jason. Good morning everybody. As Jason mentioned I'm going to talk to you this morning about active deadly threats in a new video that we've produced. Man opens fire in the lobby of an office building. A woman starts stabbing people at a bus stop. A man drives a vehicle into a crowd of people on a busy street. These are all examples of an active deadly threat. Some of those types of incidents you'll often hear referred to in the media as active shooters and I'll tell you that these are the types of incidents that we get asked about a lot every time we see one of these incidents happen anywhere in the world. It's an uncomfortable topic and the level of gun violence in Vancouver is relatively low compared to other places but with the tax increasing and frequency around the world it's something we must prepare for as a community. We all deserve to feel safe in our city and one of the best ways to increase your sense of safety is to ensure that you are prepared with information and knowledge on how to best protect yourself. With funding from the Vancouver Police Foundation and with support from Ecom 911 BC Emergency Health Services also known as BC Ambulance Service and the Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services the VPD has created a reality-based educational video to help people think through what they should do if they are faced with an active deadly threat. When we talk about an active deadly threat we mean an assailant who is actively engaged in trying to kill innocent people with a weapon. The weapon could be a gun, a knife, a vehicle or anything else that can cause harm. The attack can happen in a public place that is enclosed like an office building or a shopping mall or in an open space like a large outdoor gathering. As a police department we must prepare for an active deadly threat and we do. Our officers plan and train how we respond to neutralize the threat as quickly as possible to prevent further harm. That's priority one. But we also plan and work together with our other first responders to ensure injured people get the help that they need. However when there's an active deadly threat time will pass before first responders arrive to help. Even if it's only minutes and that's when the public or potential victims will need to act. That is what our new video focuses on. It outlines what you should do if you're faced with an active deadly threat. These will be high stress situations and we don't want to over complicate the messaging. So we've boiled it down to three things to remember. Run, hide, fight. You may do all three. You may do two of the three. You may do one of the three. But those are the three things that you need to know and they will be explained in the video. The first one I'll mention is run. So that's running to escape if that is a safe option. An important part of this is taking the time to understand your environment no matter where you go on your travels so you know the best way to get out safely. But if there's no safe way to run and escape the next recommended step is to hide. And finally if you cannot hide get ready to fight. This is a last resort but you have every right to defend yourself under high risk situations like this. These are very dynamic situations that unfold quickly and are extremely dangerous. By making this video we're encouraging people to take responsibility for their personal safety. And we also are encouraging employers to have their own safety plans in place to ensure that their employees are aware of those plans and know how to act in a case of emergency. This includes evaluating those plans periodically and practicing to ensure that those plans work. Further we encourage organizations to create a crisis response package for first responders. What I mean by that is a package that contains things including building maps and employee roster, keys and passcards to get through doors for first responders and floor plans. Although the VPD has created this video the response to an active deadly threat is not limited to police. The BC Ambulance Service, the Vancouver Fire and Rescue Service will respond with us to help treat injured people and evacuate the area when it's safe to do so. Further our partners from Ecom 911 the operators there will play a critical role in managing the overall response to keep the public and first responders safe. We're thankful for the productive working relationship we have with our partners and thank them for being here today. Specifically Mr. Oliver Grutter Andrew the president and CEO of Ecom, Ms. Samantha Wilber from BCEHS, Assistant Chief Scott Morrison from Vancouver Fire Department and I also want to recognize our own emergency response section for putting this video together. Specific thanks to Inspector Jim McCartle, Sergeant Brent Dirksen, Sergeant James Fluwelling and to Superintendent Steve Ealy, all of you for your leadership in this project. Finally before we play the video I want to thank the Vancouver Police Foundation and Executive Director Martina Makova for fully funding this important educational tool for the VPD and the people of Vancouver. This video is now available for the public on our website and we'll play it for you right now. Morning Janet. Morning Sarah how was your weekend? It was really good. How was your weekend Rick? We went to the island. Excuse me sir check your bag here please. An active deadly threat situation is very rare but you still need to be prepared. The unthinkable is happening. What do you do? Was that a gun? Let me call the lobby. First of all you don't have a lot of time although police response time is measured in minutes. A lot can happen before we get there. No answer. We got to get out of here. Well let me just get my purse. No we don't have time. But there's also a lot you can do. Number one. Run. Escape. Evaluate your options. Choose an exit where you're unlikely to encounter the assailant and that is safe to use. That's early sailing. Let's go. It's important to understand your environment so you know the best way to get out safely. If there's a safe way out run don't finish what you're doing don't take anything just run. Sound safe. Let's go. When you're safe call 911. When you call into 911 there'll be a series of questions the call taker is going to ask you. The first and most important is what is the address or location where the incident is occurring as well as where are you in relation to that. They will ask you how many assailants there are. How many shooters are there. If you can see or hear any of the weapons being used. I think I've heard seven shots. And if so what kind and how many. They will also ask you if there's any injuries. Have you seen him? I just ran. All right how many people have been shot. There will be more questions to follow depending on the circumstances. Getting clear of the situation is by far your best option. Remember leave your belongings behind. Help others to escape but go even if others don't agree to go with you and call 911 when you are safe. Once you're clear stop others from entering the area. All right just stay on the line we've dispatched the police. Are you somewhere safe. Yes we are. But what if there's no safe way out. If you can't run the next best thing is to hide. Turn out the lights and close any blinds and remain very quiet. If you can barricade the door and try to secure your hiding place as best as you can. Learn to mute both the ringer and the vibrator on your phone. If you can't mute both turn off your phone. You're trying to look as though you're not there. You probably won't have long to wait. Police are trained to respond as soon as possible. Hide behind large objects that might protect you. Ensure that anyone entering the room is a police officer. Our first priority is to locate the suspect and stop the threat. If you encounter first responders stay calm and follow instructions. Remember we're here to stop the threat and make everyone safe. That means they will likely need to bypass injured persons until it's safe to begin rescue and medical aid. We need help over here. It'll be all right. More help is on the way. Put down anything you may have in your hands phones, purses, whatever. Keep your hands visible. Do not yell, run or pointed officers. And it's a good idea to slowly raise your hands and spread your fingers. Then answer questions as calmly and concisely as you can. Worst case scenario there wasn't an option to safely escape and you've been discovered. But don't panic. There's still something you can do. As a last resort your best chance for survival is to literally fight for your life. Fight, use improvised weapons, scissors, furniture, keys. Remember you have every right to defend yourself. Act with aggression. Commit to taking the assailant down no matter what. 5-1 the building has now been completely cleared. No other suspects located. Copy 5-1. Efforts to care for victims are still underway. There are just three things you need to remember when the worst happens. Number one, run. Leave your belongings behind and get clear of any danger. Know your environment. Always have an exit plan. Where are the exits? Are there multiple routes to them? Call 911 when you're safe. If there's no safe way to an exit, number two, hide. Lock and barricade the door. Turn off the lights, close the blinds and get out of sight. Be very quiet. Signs your phone, including vibrate mode. Collect improvised weapons and make a plan of attack as silently as you can. If there's no place to hide or if you're discovered, number three, fight. Use improvised weapons. Incapacitate the assailant. Commit to and use physical aggression. You have every right to defend yourself. Police or assistant fire and ambulance will extract the injured persons. Copy that. Remember to continually assess the situation and pursue your best option for survival. The scene is secure. Develop a realistic safety plan. Practice the plan and evaluate its performance. Create a crisis response package for first responders, just off-site. It should contain at least building maps, an up-to-date employee roster, keys, passcards, floor plans, and important contact numbers. Know your environment and all exits. 10-4, have all units in note and perimeter maintain their positions for now. That's for incident command. We'll be resuming regular operations on this channel. Escape if you can. Hide if you can't. Fight if you must. Ambulance service and I'm sure they're happy to take questions as well. What was the final straw that made you decide you need to do something like this? It was around September of 2016. We really started exercising this and practicing this more. We did an exercise in Vancouver called Vanguard where we exercised a number of different scenarios including active shooters, officer down, somebody shooting in a school, threats to a hospital, a number of different things, and we realized that we're providing all this training to our police officers but there's another component that's really important. We have sort of an investigative component that's proactive and looking for these types of incidents and recurses before they happen. You've got the actual police response but the public needs to know what to do as well because it will take several minutes for police and first responders to arrive so the public needs to know what to do. So for the last year and a half or so we've been looking at it closely and over the time we built the video. What would you say is the most common mistake someone would make in a situation like this? Well I think what happens is panic sets in. Like if something like that was to happen right now I mean you're in a police station a little bit different environment but if you're in a shopping mall or you're in a church or a school or an office building where you work something like that if all of a sudden somebody starts firing shots or somebody's coming with a knife that sort of thing panic naturally sets in with people. You're not naturally trained to deal with these types of situations. So having that knowledge of three easy things to remember I think boils it down in a tense situation. You're not thinking about 10 different things three things to remember and that's what you focus on. How do you determine the likely scenario that like the encounter gets happens? Right so just looking at world events I mean there's been so many that we've seen down in the United States we've seen events in our own country with the parliament hill shooting we had the attack of course in Toronto just last month we had the science world and Starbucks shooting in Vancouver a couple years ago so these incidents do happen in Canada as well. They're obviously more frequently occurring in the United States but it is a risk anywhere in the world. Something I noticed while watching the video was there is a message from police of course to make sure that heads are visible and that they respond officer direction when the officers show up. There's also the message to harm yourself with improvised weapons. They seem very contrary to each other and as we saw in the video police can wrap a quarter on you. It's clearly a concern for police that they don't shoot the robbers. Right what can you tell me about those contradicting suggestions? Sure so when officers going into these situations they will be uniformed officers patrol officers school liaison officers officers from our emergency response team they will be clearly visible when you see a police officer coming and you're a citizen don't be holding up a weapon in your hand but if you see somebody coming at you that's the assailant the person that's causing the issue they're two completely different things so you have to be aware of your own surroundings and know who you're dealing with. The police obviously you don't want to show a weapon but if it's somebody that's going to attack you and the attack is imminent then you're able to use serious force on that person. You mentioned a few scenarios of the asset including a man driving the vehicle are the steps in that office shooter scenario the same as they would be for a vehicle scenario? Well things are slightly different so like I say the run hide fight thing it's not necessarily linear it could be linear you could do all three or as I said one of the three or two of the three but in a situation like a vehicle are coming at you probably your best course of action is going to be to run and get out of the way. You talk about the packaging for I guess like big buildings big office buildings that sort of thing is that are you taking steps now to contact particularly large buildings or campuses or anything to actually get them to make these sorts of packages? Yeah we are we're talking to hotels and different businesses in Vancouver making sure that security personnel there do get things like that together for us whether it's keys fobs maps you know security radios whatever it is but a package together so when something happens they're not scrambling to kind of get that information so we've got it in one place when we arrive it's all ready to go so yes we are reaching out. Chief is this rolling out on on television or it's just on the VPD's website? We'll put it out through social media through YouTube Facebook Twitter that sort of thing and then we're hoping that through your newscast you'll amplify it as well. What do you say to people who might say that this is just going to raise people's anxiety fear it's unnecessary we haven't seen these kinds of things happening really for the most part in in Metro Vancouver? Well I mean I think we have to be prepared for anything that could happen in our city and like I mentioned the science world shooting a couple of years ago which was an active shooter situation you know a mile from here so these things do happen in our city and they happen definitely in cities like Vancouver around the world and we just want people to be prepared we're not trying to fear monger or anything like that I just think that putting our head in the sand pretending that everything's going to be fine is also not an option it's like preparing for earthquakes or anything else may not happen for 150 years but you have to be prepared for it. But again there's no specific threat or increasing level of concern specific to to Vancouver or the surrounding area. None whatsoever the national security threat for Canada remains at medium where it's been since October of 2014 after the Parliament Hill shooting. Chief could you elaborate on what happens when you know it calls me that there's an active shooter during the department and say please take minutes to arrive what happens in those minutes? Well depending on where it is I mean there's some parts of the city that may have a higher concentration of officers than others if it's in a school there could be a schoolway as an officer working right in the school that's already on site but it will be patrol officers traffic officers emergency response team officers canine officers everybody will converge on the site and our officers are trained when they get there how to form up in pods and they go into the school and they deal with the threat right away things that we saw you know 19 20 years ago like the Columbine shooting back then the theory was to wait outside and control you know the area lock it down but in the meantime lots of kids are dying inside the school so the approach that we take now is not to wait we get there we go in right away. What's the circumstance when there isn't enough for a pod let's say there's just one officer there at the scene like a school resource officer what are their directions? Right a school resource officer will take action to save lives absolutely but there's enough officers in Vancouver that we can form up pods very quickly. Haven't really seen any other police departments make a video like this are you expecting that in other cities that this video is going to spread and just you know help people in other jurisdictions figure out what to do in a event like this? I would hope so there are some other videos I've seen down in the United States I'm not familiar with ones in Canada they may exist but it's the first one I'm aware of locally. Chief how much did it cost to put this whole thing together? No Martina what was it 20 grand or 20,000? Could you elaborate on vanguard of exercises October 2016 what was part of that exercise that I don't recall having heard of? Yeah that was an exercise where we did a scenario of an officer down like an officer involved shooting where an officer had been shot we did another scenario up at a school in Vancouver where we had we mocked up a situation where an active shooter was inside of a school we had actors we had you know well over a hundred people involved in the exercise from VPD from the fire department, ECOM, the ambulance service going through a mock scenario of what you would do if you had a situation like that happening but we put multiple scenarios on at the same time so there was the officer down there was the school shooting there was an escaped armed suspect that we had to track down and also an event at a local hospital that was a notional exercise and how we would respond to that. Did you learn anything as part of that that made you change what you did prior to September 2016 and now? Yeah absolutely I mean a lot of the protocols we had in place worked very well and we were very happy with the training that we provided to officers and but like any exercise there were things that we saw that we could do differently and a lot of it comes down to communication with our partners so we're all on the same page and we know that when we respond to an incident like that the ambulance and the fire department and ECOM knows what the police are going to do and vice versa we need to know who's going to stage where who's going to take on what responsibilities and how those all intertwine together and we still that is still evolving to this day to make sure that we're up to the best practices that are happening around the world and when these things happen in other cities like Las Vegas and Orlando we debrief all of those types of incidents and we take out lessons learned that we can apply here in Vancouver. Okay thank you very much everybody. Okay thank you very much. If you guys would like to interview any of our community partners are available in the room.