Michigan State University has the results of a third party review of the Feb. 13, 2023 shooting on campus.
The goal of the review was to evaluate what happened during and after the shooting, what needed to happen, and what improvements should be made to MSU’s and law enforcement’s response plan. Here’s a quick look at the findings by Security Risk Management.
WHAT WENT WELL AND WHY?
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- Initial handling on the 911 calls was appropriately handled. The County Dispatch Center (ICRD) (Ingram County Regional Dispatch Center) appropriately managed the influx of emergency calls related to the incident, including coordinating and dispatching fire and medic units as well as outside agencies.
- Because of appropriate training, ICRD dispatchers and staff were able to reorganize the dispatch operation to accommodate the influx of calls for assistance and manage the number of agencies responding.
- MSU Police, the Ingham County Sheriff’s Deputies, and East Lansing Police appropriately responded to the scenes (Berkey and the Union).
- Police officers, utilizing prior training for active shooter events, were able to seamlessly and immediately deploy into a response mode appropriate for the situation.
- Other agencies, including Lansing Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation also provided response and/or crime scene investigation assistance during the incident.
- Responding police officers took appropriate actions to locate and eliminate any deadly threat. Using prior training, officers understood their roles in locating, identifying, and eliminating the deadly threat.
- The University quickly responded with a plan to revise and enhance campus safety and security.
WHAT SHOULD BE IMPROVED?
- Deployment of additional security technology and implementation of the plans for a Security Operations Center within the Public Safety Department.
- Take control of self-dispatched police officers to avoid interagency confusion and public reports of unknown people with guns on and around the campus.
- Fire, EMS, and the press are typically directed to staging areas where they wait to be deployed or be given updates. There was a lack of command and control of these assets. This is understood by MSUPD leadership and is mentioned in their internal AAR.
- There were people who self-deployed to help during the crisis. This included MSU staff and community providers, counselors/mental health professionals, and local clergy. Although well-intentioned, this added to the chaos.
- Procurement Services was able to secure some resources to aid in this crisis, yet there were no processes in place to identify, badge, assign roles, or control the environment.
- The Family Assistance Center was without the appropriate leadership and organization necessary to manage during the crisis.
