Hampton police, school district provide ALICE training for handling dangerous situations

In response to community concerns following mass shootings across the country in hospitals, businesses, places of worship and in the spring at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, the Hampton Township Police Department and township school district partnered to provide free active shooter training to residents and businesses in October.

The ALICE training — alert, lockdown, inform, counter and evacuate — will be held at the Hampton Community Center on Oct. 2 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. This is the third time the police department has hosted this training session.

“The ALICE training is designed to help (the community) be able to respond to an active shooter situation or a violent intruder situation and give them the tools that they need to be able to cope with it and be able to react to it instead of just being dormant and sheltered in a room hoping that nothing happens to them,” said police Chief Thomas Vulakovich.

On the day of the event, Vulakovich said attendees can expect a 45-minute presentation from officers and a school official on how ALICE works and what people should do in various active shooter scenarios. Then, he said, attendees will be broken into groups and spread throughout the community center to practice the scenarios “to the level they are comfortable with participating.”

Vulakovich said about 20 people signed up so far, but he expects about 40 people to attend. People can register at www.hampton-pa.org.