Cherokee Law Enforcement Takes Part in Active Threat Training

CHEROKEE COUNTY — Law enforcement officers from several Cherokee County agencies gathered June 25 at Revolution Church near Canton to take part in active threat training.

The Cherokee Sheriff’s Office typically holds a multi-agency active shooter training every summer at a local school. This year’s training was a bit different, however, with CSO and other agencies spending two days at the church to partake in active threat training.

“About 86% of active shooters happen outside of a school, so we wanted to train somewhere that was not a school because our officers and deputy are so familiar with the layout of the schools, we wanted to do something at a completely different environment,” said Sgt. Matthew Azaroff, a member of the CSO’s training division. “This church is not a typical church — it’s a commercial structure so it provides for a different experience.”

The training began June 25 and will last through June 26.

Azaroff said this training is used to “assess our agency response to an active threat outside of a school.”

“What we are looking for is how officers and deputies respond in a high stress situation, as well as anything we can do in future training to help,” he said. “So, once this assessment is over, we know what training we need to do moving forward. We are looking at whether or not they do the proper techniques at a given area within the building. These areas include the stairs, hallways, various doors and rooms, auditorium, intersections — we are accessing everything we do as an agency to perfect our response as much as we can.”

Officers with the Ball Ground Police Department, Canton Police Department, Cherokee Marshal’s Office, Cherokee Sheriff’s Office and Woodstock Police Department are participating in the two-day training.

During part of Tuesday’s training, officers made their way through the hallway to the auditorium, checking along the way for any potential “threats.”

“They come in, deal with the active threat, then they have to clear the rest of the building,” Azaroff said. “We have an inside and outside environment, a lit hallway and a dark auditorium with music to make them deal with auditory and visual stimuli. They then go upstairs into a completely different environment where it is completely dark. This is designed to give sensory overload to the officers so, in a real event, they’re prepared as much as they can be. We can’t predict an event, but we can give them as much stimuli and obstacles as we can so if they face those obstacles in the real world, they know how to deal with them.”

This was followed by a debriefing, where officers were given feedback on what they did correctly, if any mistakes were made and what they could have done differently.

Azaroff said about 140 officers are expected to participate in the two-day training over 16 hours.

“This type of training is important, so they don’t have to deal with these types of situations for the first time in the real world,” Azaroff said. “We build future training based upon this training. Really, the training never stops. This is about as real world as we can get.”

Cherokee Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Tommy Pinyan added that “our training division works extremely hard to bring real-time relevant training to our deputies and to the area.”

“They constantly strive to ensure the training is relevant and places the officer in a real-world scenario so it’s not the first time they see a critical or highly stressful situation,” Pinyan said. “If they make a mistake, it’s better to do so in this training environment so they learn from it and don’t make that mistake in a real situation.”

Pinyan added that training with other agencies is important because in a real situation, several agencies will be at the scene providing assistance.

“No matter what it is and whose jurisdiction it is, everyone is coming — all the law enforcement agencies and other public safety partners such as fire,” he said. “It’s important to be on the same page for a smoother operation and hopefully a better outcome.”