In Search of Optimal Response

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A new model could provide better training for schools and other organizations coping with the threat of an active shooter situation. Run, hide, fight. It has become a mantra for how to act during an active shooter situation. The idea is to escape the situation or protect oneself, and counter the gunman as a last resort. 

Eric Dietz, director of the Purdue Homeland Security Institute and a professor of computer and information technology and his students have come up with a novel way to test how well “run, hide, fight” works in an active shooter situation. 

The team created a computer model, based on the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School, during which 13 people were killed. The model looks at what happens to victims caught in shooter situations to provide better training for schools and other organizations.

In order to develop their computer model, the researchers worked with AnyLogic, a group that creates simulation tools. They used their computer model to focus on what happened inside the library at Columbine on the day of the shooting. The researchers have run multiple scenarios to determine the likely number of victims and survivors based on various actions taken by those caught in the library when the massacre began.

“We find that the number of casualties is higher in situations like Columbine when more people try to hide instead of run,” said Dietz. “That’s not to say it is the best action every single time, but rather we want to use our model and some of our research to better inform schools on active shooter training and survival information. Running from the situation is often linked to the best outcomes.”

Dietz and his team at the Purdue Homeland Security Institute are working on a number of projects related to public safety, according to phys.org.