Council, city employees to practice active shooter drills

Increased training comes in response to recent North Royalton shooting

by Melissa Martin

Aug. 4 city council meeting

In the wake of a recent shooting in North Royalton that resulted in the death of building commissioner David Smerek, Brecksville officials are undergoing active shooter training.

Mayor Daryl Kingston told city council that since the July 27 incident, in which a gunman entered the North Royalton Service Center and killed Smerek, he’s been exploring ways to prepare Brecksville employees and council members for armed incursions at city hall, the community center or at a council meeting.

Short of installing metal detectors at all entrances of city-owned buildings, Kingston told council he believes teaching individuals how to think during a crisis is the best form of prevention. He called preparing city employees “urgent.”

“In light of the recent tragedy in North Royalton, we have to do a few things differently,” Kingston said. “This teaches people how to make proactive survival decisions during violent incidents instead of just waiting and hiding.”

Kingston told council that two members of the police department — both of whom are school resource officers — have experience with ALICE training and will conduct classroom-style training and scenario-based drills to educate participants about how to conduct themselves during an emergency.

ALICE stands for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter and Evacuate and is designed to help individuals recognize and communicate the initial signs of danger quickly and move to a safe distance, out of harm’s way.

Kingston opened the education sessions to council members as well, encouraging them to conduct training in council chambers where they would most likely encounter a hostile individual.

“I know it’s an uncomfortable topic that no one likes to talk about, but I think we’re past that point now,” Kingston said. “[This training] will center on advanced lifesaving skills, including how to make tourniquets and such, and many different ways we can make sure we are all more prepared.”

Members of the Safety Services Committee agreed that the training is a good idea.

“I think any time you can prepare people for a situation — it doesn’t matter if it’s an emergency, a tornado or a gunman — I think you do it,” committee member Brian Stucky said. “We need to teach people how to prepare for the worst.”

Stucky said he has participated in ALICE training before and it’s “extremely informative.”

“If you are in those moments, the more practice you’ve had, the better you’re going to be prepared,” he said, adding that conducting training in council chambers is a smart idea. “Yes, the skills are applicable in whatever scenario we may find ourselves in, but for the safety of ourselves and the situation we are in, I think it makes sense to be scenario based in the room where such an incident would potentially happen.”

Committee member Mark Jantzen agreed with the need for city council to take part.

“I think we’ve all seen in here that there are days when temperatures get to a boiling point and an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” he said. “I’ve said that about lots of different things, but I think this is something that certainly falls under that.”

Council member exercises will likely be conducted prior to meetings in September or October, but Law Director David Matty said the sessions would be closed to the public.

“This certainly falls under the area of security, and the law permits training of this nature to be done privately,” Matty said.

In other action, council approved:

• The $17,930 purchase of holiday decorations to replace Christmas decorations lost in a service garage fire earlier this year. Insurance will reimburse the city.
• A $42,995 change order for the Central School demolition project as the amount of asbestos inside the building was more than anticipated. Asbestos removal is required before the building can be torn down.
• A three-year memorandum of understanding with the Cuyahoga Valley Career Center to continue providing a school resource officer for the building. The city first provided an officer in 2023 and will share the expense of the officer’s salary and benefits with the career center.
• An independent, third-party traffic study for the Valor Acres development that will focus on the impact on traffic on Brecksville and Miller roads.