A recent investigation spurred by the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas, in 2022 has raised questions concerning the adequacy of active shooter training for law enforcement across the nation.
During the tragic incident in Uvalde, officers hesitated for 77 minutes before engaging the gunman, who fatally shot 19 students and two teachers, while injuring 17 others.
A joint investigation by The Texas Tribune, ProPublica and Frontline uncovered critical gaps in preparedness between students and law enforcement officers, revealing that while at least 37 states mandate active shooter–related drills in schools, typically on a yearly basis, no states require such training for officers annually.
The findings shed more light on the patchwork approach to active shooter training, with decisions often left to individual school districts and law enforcement departments.
This approach has resulted in discrepancies in training frequency and standards across different regions, leading to concerns that another failed response like the one in Uvalde could happen again.
The investigation also revealed that about 30% of the 116 state and local officers who responded to the Robb Elementary School shooting did not receive active shooter training after graduating from police academies.
Even among those who had received such training, many had only received it once in their careers, contrary to recommended standards.
John Curnutt, assistant director at Texas State University’s Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Center, spoke on the importance of adequate training, despite the high costs.
“There’s a higher price that’s paid than the one that we probably could have paid upfront to get ready for it,” Curnutt said, adding that Uvalde is a “horrible example” of needed training that hadn’t been practiced enough.
In response to the findings, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland’s office released a scathing reportdetailing failures during the Robb Elementary School response and called for law enforcement agencies to immediately prioritize active shooter training.
Additionally, the federal report recommended that officers receive eight hours of such instruction annually.
However, the investigation found that only Texas comes close to meeting these standards, with the state mandating 16 hours of active shooter training every two years for all officers.
Following the Robb Elementary shooting, about a dozen states increased training requirements, but many still fall short of recommended standards.
Only two states, Texas and Michigan, have laws that require active shooter training for all officers once on the job.
Meanwhile, several states, such as Mississippi and Illinois, only mandate active shooting training for school police.
The report’s findings also identified discrepancies in active shooter training requirements among academy cadets.
While police academies in nearly every state require some form of active shooter training, five states — California, Georgia, Ohio, Washington and Vermont — do not require it for all recruits.
Investigators concluded in the report that a standardized approach to active shooter training should be implemented for law enforcement nationwide.
