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Aug. 12, 2019 Public Notice: UA to Hold Active Shooter Drill Wednesday |
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TUCSON, Ariz. — The University of Arizona Police Department and the Critical Incident Response Team will conduct an active shooter training exercise Wednesday evening to test the University's ability and readiness to address emergency situations. Police officers, UA employees and volunteers will act out an active shooter scenario near Old Main between 4 p.m. and 11 p.m. The scenario will be performed as realistically as possible, including role players made up to look like injured victims, police officers running to the scene, and noise simulating gunfire. Police officers will be using "blue guns," which are not real weapons and cannot be loaded with ammunition. Signs will be posted around the site to alert people that the activity is a drill and keep people away from the exercise. Staff will support those efforts. The exercise will be led by UAPD Chief Brian Seastone and Vice Provost for Campus Life Kendal Washington White, co-chairs of the University’s Critical Incident Response Team. The goal of the training is to test skills and decision-making while requiring participants to react swiftly under stress. It also helps prepare incident support staff to react effectively in emergency situations. The event has been planned for more than six months and is not in response to recent tragedies. University emergency policies and procedures are available at https://cirt.arizona.edu and individuals can register to receive UAlerts at https://cirt.arizona.edu/node/72. The public alert system will not be used for this drill. ### |
| Media contact: Sgt. Sean Shields Public Information Officer Crime Prevention Unit 520-626-8007 (office) | 520-307-1527 (cell) shields1@email.arizona.edu Chris Sigurdson |
| The University of Arizona, a land-grant university with two independently accredited medical schools, is one of the nation's top 50 public universities, according to U.S. News & World Report. Established in 1885, the UA is widely recognized as a student-centric university and has been designated as a Hispanic Serving Institution by the U.S. Department of Education. The UA ranked in the top 25 in 2018 in research expenditures among all public universities, according to the National Science Foundation, and is a leading Research 1 institution with $687 million in annual research expenditures. The UA advances the frontiers of interdisciplinary scholarship and entrepreneurial partnerships as a member of the Association of American Universities, the 62 leading public and private research universities in the U.S. It benefits the state with an estimated economic impact of $4.1 billion annually. |
