Simulated rifle rounds echo out as police officers storm a room, take down a gunman, and then turn their attention to the actors sprawled on the floor, covered in fake blood. This is an active shooter simulation at Texas State University’s Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Center—or ALERRT—in San Marcos. U.S. Senator from Texas John Cornyn is seated in the front row, observing the scene. “The need for this sort of training has gotten even greater,” Cornyn says. Legislation called the POLICE Act, proposed by Cornyn and signed by President Obama last month, will allow more first responders around the country to prepare for the worst. The bill does not authorize any new spending, but says that federal grant money typically used to help agencies hire community-oriented officers through a program called COPS can now be used to pay for trainings like this one provided by the ALERRT Center. “At a time when our politics have become way too polarized and we don’t get anything
Source: Texas Public Radio
