Oklahoma Corporation Commission Presents Active Attack Response Training for State Employees

OKLAHOMA CITY – About 75 state employees from various agencies in the State Capitol complex attended Active Attack Response Training on Wednesday, March 13, 2024. The three-hour training was presented by Oklahoma Corporation Commission (OCC) Transportation Enforcement Officers Chris Joslin and Eric Farmer.

“Transportation Division Deputy Director Brett Macy presented us with some thoughts about building access and keeping employees safe in the event of an emergency,” said OCC Director of Administration Brandy Wreath. “We do this type of training for our officers frequently. Given the increase in these types of events over the past couple of decades, we felt our employees could definitely benefit from knowing what to do if someone came into our office building intent on doing significant harm. So, we decided to also offer the training to personnel in other agencies.”

The course covered the history of US mass casualty events since 2000, the three main responses from people who find themselves in an active attack event, and stressed both the need to be prepared and to act to save your life, and others, should you find yourself in a similar situation.

“We used to call these Active Shooter Events,” said Transportation Officer Chris Joslin. “The term was changed to Active Attack Event because while it most often involves a gun, attackers also use knives, vehicles or other types of weapons. From 2000 to 2022, there have been 520 active attacks in the US. Almost 50% happened at a business.”

School shootings tend to spring to mind first when the public thinks of mass casualty events though this location actually ranks third behind businesses (workplace violence) and outdoor venues as likely places for such an event. “In 61% of attacks, there was no direct connection between the location and the attacker,” Joslin said.

“Playing dead is not a tactic,” Transportation Officer Eric Farmer told those in attendance. “You’ve got to take decisive action and decide whether to run, hide or defend. Get in a room, barricade a door and get low. You can’t let the bad guy decide how your day ends. Find your ‘why’ and decide why you’re going to fight. You have to train this stuff. You have to win the day.”

In an active attack event, two things largely impact the number of survivors – the arrival of law enforcement and target availability. Farmer and Joslin both stressed the need for common place situational awareness. It’s drilled into law enforcement officers and the general public can also benefit from small things like locating available exits, being aware of your surroundings, and having a plan to either leave, barricade, or defend and, always, summon help.

Farmer and Joslin are both CLEET certified training officers. Farmer is a 30-year law enforcement veteran who joined OCC in 2018 serving at the Love County Port of Entry. He is a certified firearms, SWAT, and sniper instructor, a police academy instructor and defensive tactics trainer.

Joslin joined OCC in 2014 and serves at the Hugo Weigh Station. He is an Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT) certified instructor and a Civilian Response to Active Shooter Events (CRASE) certified instructor.

Based on the response from today’s training, OCC is looking at future training dates to further prepare state personnel to successfully survive what are effectively attempted mass murder events.