EAST LANSING, Mich. – Police response to the February mass shooting at Michigan State University that left three students dead was efficient and effective, according to the results of a third-party review that were released to the public on Tuesday.
Security Risk Management Consultants, a risk management firm, was asked by the university to review its response to the fatal Feb. 13 shootings on its East Lansing campus, as well as actions taken after the shootings. In a 25-page report released by the university on Tuesday, the firm found that MSU police’s initial response to the first campus shooting was “appropriate, timely, and correct. Officers proceeded directly to the last known location of violence to eliminate the threat. Those efforts continued as the second shooting location was identified.”
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The report focused heavily on suggestions to improve the training, organization of, and processes carried out by first responders, including emergency dispatch centers, law enforcement, EMS, and university leaders, when an emergency occurs. Overall, the firm said that though police responded appropriately given the information they had, the situation was notably chaotic -- in part due to the nature of a horrific event like a mass shooting -- and could be made more manageable for first responders if necessary going forward.
Better organization is of particular concern after people and first responders from all over arrived at the university to help without being asked to on Feb. 13, adding to the confusion and “public reports of unknown people with guns on and around the campus.”
“There were people who self-deployed to help during the crisis ... Although well-intentioned, this added to the chaos,” the report reads.
The firm highlighted that the people working at the Ingham County dispatch center during the shooting handled the initial 911 calls well, and appropriately coordinated local and external first responders.
“While there are areas that should be internally further evaluated (because of this report) and actions taken, overall, we believe the initial response by MSU police and other police agencies was efficient and effective. The response in no way contributed to the prolongation of the incident, nor did it contribute in any way to additional loss of life,” the report reads.
Another major focus of the report was to recommend several security upgrades on the East Lansing campus. According to the firm, the university is transitioning to a new surveillance system that will eventually provide an emergency lockdown feature for the campus. This system will also reportedly better coordinate the video surveillance footage on and around campus, and enable that footage to be more accessible to those who need it.
MSU is also being encouraged to install “storeroom function locks” on all campus doors, and to ensure classroom doors are always locked. The firm also suggests the school adds magnetic door props that can automatically move and close the door in a lockdown situation, rather than using wedges to keep doors open.
Classroom doors are often a specific area of concern following mass school shootings. When a gunman opened fire at MSU earlier this year, he first opened the door to a classroom and fired at students attending class in Berkey Hall on the school’s north campus. Seven students were shot there, two fatally, before the gunman moved on to a nearby campus building and fatally shot one other victim.
Shortly after the shooting, the university established new safety protocols that require campus members to use key cards to access certain buildings at certain times. Interim MSU President Teresa Woodruff said in August that the institution had been putting locks on classroom doors and installing more security cameras ahead of the fall semester.
---> From August: Michigan State University: Where things stand 6 months after mass shooting
Read the report here
You can read the entire report created by Security Risk Management Consultants below.