The Findlay Police Department put officers through active shooter drills at the high school ahead of the beginning of the new school year.

Lt. Andrew Welch said their training this year was bigger than ever and involved more actors with realistic-looking wounds that were treated by the fire department and HANCO personnel.

Lt. Welch says their officers are trained to enter the school immediately and become the focus of the shooter.

“If you can become the focus that means he’s not focused on hurting anybody in the school,” Welch said.

“Our safety becomes second to those in the school because we are prepared, we’re trained and we understand what we need to do.”

He says the SafeDefend active shooter protection system installed in Findlay schools a few years ago has been very beneficial because it provides emergency responders with instant information about the location and nature of the threat.

Lt. Welch says you’ll be seeing law enforcement refer to such threats as ‘active killer’ instead of ‘active shooter’ to reflect the fact that the threat can come from someone with a knife, an explosive, driving a car into a crowd, and other things.