Active Shooter Training: An Evolving Concern for Racetracks

The morning of June 10 this year, Pimlico racetrack resembled a war zone.

First, there was an overdose situation in the infield, then a disgruntled employee took charge of a van and ploughed it through a crowd of people. As the frightened throngs began to evacuate the track, an active shooter opened fire.

The Baltimore City Police Tactical Unit moved in and took the shooter out, but not before many had been killed and dozens more critically injured. Nearby Sinai Hospital was overwhelmed with patients. Nothing like this had before been witnessed at an American racetrack.

If you're wondering why you're reading about this incident for the first time, there's good reason.

“This was probably one of the first mass casualty exercises ever done in the city [of Baltimore],” said Mike Singletary, vice president of security operations at Pimlico, about a day of simulated training that involved numerous private, city, state and county institutions and agencies, as well as a host of actors. Between 300 and 400 people were involved, Singletary estimated.

“It was surreal,” he added.

Pimlico's June training day is an all-encompassing example of emergency scenarios. Other racetracks typically train on a narrower, more focused scale. Some have been doing active shooter training for years.

But U.S. racetracks are typically under-prepared when it comes to active shooters, said Mike Kilpack, the National Thoroughbred Racing Association's (NTRA) Security Integrity Consultant, and the Equine Security Supervising Investigator for the Breeder's Cup.

“It's not that they don't care, they just don't make it a priority,” said Kilpack, who explained the extent of the training required differs from track to track–that a facility hosting a Triple Crown event would have to prepare far more extensively than a smaller country venue. “But for a track not to have it, that's just naïve.”

That's just naïve

This year alone, 68 people have been killed in eight different mass shooting events, according to data compiled by the Washington Post. A mass shooting is one in which four or more people are killed by a lone gunman. There have been 48 such incidents since the start of 2010.

For many years, horse racing appeared walled off from this most insidious of societal trends. While the rest of the country marched into a world of heightened security, pat downs, bag searches and walk-through metal-detectors, racing has largely remained cocooned within a cozy fleece of tradition and cultural separation.

Then, this September outside a busy Del Mar racetrack, a local Sheriff's deputy shot and killed a man wielding a gun. Suddenly, the problem crash landed on our doorstep. That said, there have been times in the past when horse racing has strayed into the cross-hairs of heightened security fears nationally.

“It woke everybody up in the country, especially those who were hosting large sporting events,” said Dora Delgado senior vice president of Racing and Nominations at the Breeders' Cup, about the organization's response in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. That year, for example, the Breeders' Cup brought in SWAT teams that patrolled the roof of Belmont Park.

“It was clear that we had to look beyond doing the normal racetrack way,” she added.

Save your ass

The heightened fears of 2001 have since diminished somewhat, but the need for vigilance hasn't. Only, the complicated logistics of organizing emergency response and active shooter training can be off-putting to track operators, said Kilpack. Indeed, it took months to organize the event at Pimlico.

“Mount Sinai hospital reached out to us in early January,” said Singletary. “There were a lot of contributors to this event.”

Six months of preparations involved 18 different institutions and agencies, including the Maryland Emergency Management Agency, Baltimore City police, health, and fire departments, the office of emergency operations, and other local and county volunteer and active fire departments.

So, what's the main take-away for employees from these exercises?

“I think number one is response,” said Singletary, who explained that in May, a smaller scale training day was conducted at Laurel Park. “We've had active shooter training–we do that twice a year. We've had bomb threats and suspicious package training. We've had first-aid, CPR, AED [automated external defibrillator] training. We continue to train every year to make sure that we're prepared for these events.”

When it comes to the logistics, even training on a smaller scale can be tricky to organize, admitted John Coffey, director of security for The Stronach Group.

“It takes a lot of time,” Coffey said. “You have to schedule with the local police, or you have to schedule with state or federal agencies. It's not easy.”

Coffey, who spent 30 years with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and a number of years with the FBI, has conducted active shooter training at Gulfstream Park for nearly a decade. He said that he's in the process of bringing active shooter training uniformity to all Stronach Group facilities. The effort to do so is worth it overall, he added.

“Your training will come back to you and save your ass because you won't have to think, you'll just react the proper way,” said Coffey.

Another prohibitive factor is the potential cost. According to Singletary, funding for the day of training at Pimlico came from federal and state grants, as well as Maryland Jockey Club coffers.

“We just volunteered the facility,” he said.

But again, Coffey argued that even though most racetracks are facing tightening budgets, the benefits of such training out-weight the outlay.

“Yeah, it's going to cost some money to train them, but isn't that cost effective in the long run?” he said.

Certainly the world has changed

In response to the September incident, Del Mar has instituted a number of changes, including metal detectors in the concert area, and a new protocol where the public can text or call racetrack security to report suspicious activity.

“We're also working with experts in concert security and crowd management,” said Josh Rubenstein, president of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club.

Del Mar's full-time staff have traditionally received active shooter training every other year, under supervision of the local sheriff's department. This has involved drills and training videos. According to Rubinstein, all Del Mar staff, both full and part time, will now receive active shooter training on an annual basis.

“Certainly the world has changed,” Rubinstein said, about why Del Mar has instituted these changes. “You see things that go on, and we want to be as proactive as we can for providing the safest possible environment for our patrons and staff.”

Because of the sensitive nature of the issue, some tracks and organizations were apprehensive about talking with the TDN, like Woodbine, for example.

Woodbine communications specialist Brittney Mayotte wrote in an email that the emergency response training it provides, including “active attacker” training, is designed to educate employees on what options they have, getting them familiar with their facility and exits, and what to expect from the police response.

“Woodbine encourages everyone to be our eyes and ears and follow a philosophy of “See Something, Say Something,” Mayotte wrote, explaining how, “for security reasons, we can't go into too much detail.”

Before high profile events like the Belmont S. and the Saratoga meet, NYRA brings together as many as 15 different law enforcement and public agencies to run through a range of exercises, including emergency scenarios.

“While it would be counterproductive to detail many of the individual steps taken every day, NYRA's overall safety plan combines physical security design with modern technology to keep our guests safe at all times,” wrote NYRA spokesperson, Pat McKenna, in an email.

Public is the real first responder

Some experts argue that active shooters pose a broader, more complex set of problems that can't be addressed through employee training alone.

While emergency response training involving first responders is “a great experience, great training, great fun for law enforcement officers, in reality, those officers never get to play,” said Greg Crane, founder of the ALICE Training Institute, which provides civilian response training.

“They never get there in time to have a material impact in the outcome,” Crane added. Indeed, according to FBI data, 60% of active shooting events are over before first responders can arrive.

And while many sporting venues, like racetracks, typically have an armed presence, the shooter may appear in an area with no armed personnel.

“Don't think these guys haven't figured it out and haven't looked for the best place where they can get the biggest bang for their evil,” said Crane.

Which is why he calls on the public to “play a roll” in their own survival. Rather than drop to the floor, racegoers should use what Crane frames as “voice, movement, distance, and distraction.” In other words, “create as much noise as you can, create as much movement as you can, create distance if possible, and while all that is going on, engage in as much visual distraction as possible,” he said.

“If what we've taught them is to do nothing and wait for those people who are coming secondarily, they're just a victim in waiting at that point,” he said.

As for quickly and efficiently disseminating this information to racegoers, Crane suggested a video which could be played repeatedly on screens around racetrack facilities–similar to the evacuation procedure videos played every live race day at Belmont Park and Saratoga.

When asked if just such a video existed specific to active shooter response, Crane said, “I'm not aware of one that's been done for sporting venues.”

Active shooter training for all racetrack employees, however, is still very much an imperative in today's world, said Coffey, who added that racegoers expect sporting venues to be trained for such an eventuality. “I'm a firm believer in this: if the people don't feel safe, they will not come.”

Dora Delgado of the Breeders' Cup agreed.

“I think in this day and age with the kinds of things that are happening in this country, I think everyone's a little nervous about going to crowded public places,” said Delgado, who broached a whole other set of headaches for racetracks: how to prevent weapons from entering the track in the first place.

“A more secure perimeter around some of these facilities would be better-there are still holes to be plugged,” she said. “It's just a different environment now, and you can't expose people to that kind of risk.”