Wrangell, Petersburg police collaborate in active shooter training

Members of the Wrangell and Petersburg police departments collaborated on some active shooter training on July 19 and 20. About four members of the Petersburg police department joined five members of the Wrangell police for the training which was lead by Jeff Hall.

Hall has about 35 years of martial arts and law enforcement experience, also having previously worked with the Alaska State Troopers.

Most of the training on July 19 was on the theory of stopping a shooting. Hall said that the goal is to locate the target as quickly as possible and eliminate the threat. In a shooting situation, he said, there's no time for discussion. All the theories were put into practice on Friday at the shooting range. Hall showed the participating police officers some basic military tactics on how to advance and retreat under fire. He said that when he was younger these would have been considered advanced tactics for police to know, but they have become necessary in recent years.

"This is becoming more and more common," he said.

Wrangell Police Chief Doug McCloskey said that his department trains with Petersburg as often as they can as their two departments are so close together.

"If things aren't going well Petersburg, will probably be our closest resource, and us for them," he said. "Usually when we do any kind of training we invite them over.

Sometimes they can make it and sometimes they can't, but we always invite them."

"I wanted to come over because I was just made chief in Petersburg," said Petersburg Police Chief James Kerr, "I wanted to use this training to bring both departments together."

Kerr said he hopes for stronger collaboration between the two departments in the future, especially in combating drug-related crimes."It was great training," he said. "It was nice to have the active shooter training."