 "Photo: Laurén Abdel-Razzaq / For The South End")
 "Photo: Laurén Abdel-Razzaq / For The South End")
Inside the Wayne State Police Department’s new headquarters is a room full of weapons that would not normally be found in a police station.
These guns, which have been taken from the street and confiscated, would usually be melted down to make other products. Instead, they have become teaching tools that could one day save an officer’s or a student’s life.
“Several thousand weapons are confiscated every month,” said Lt. David Scott. “The weapons can be reissued by the state of Michigan to the police for training purposes.”
According to Scott, the guns are given to various police departments throughout the state so officers can learn how to unload the weapons if they encounter them while patrolling.
Inside the heavily guarded room at police headquarters, a variety of weapons can be found, from an AK-47 with a bayonet on the end of it, to a revolver that looks like it could be part of a cowboy Halloween costume.
“Most of these guns are hard to come by, so we can’t train with them unless there is the state reissue policy,” Scott said. “If these weapons are found on the street, it is the officer’s job to disarm them and make them safe — this is why we have to train them.”
The reissue policy is just one step in a larger effort by Wayne State to institute an Active Shooter Training Program. This program, a response to the Virginia Tech shootings, was deemed necessary after an active shooter drill at State Hall last year. The officers were able to see how students would react if a shooting occurred on campus while Wayne State students acted out how they would respond to the situation.
The results made the department realize something had to be done to educate students.
“We came to realize that nobody really knows what to do in that kind of situation,” said Scott about the active shooter drill. “The civilian population has no idea what to do before the police arrive and immediately after the police arrive.”
As a remedy, police are working on a two-part program to educate students and the WSU community.
The first part will be a downloadable program that will be available through Blackboard.
Students can go through the training modules at their own pace and learn what to do and, more importantly, what not to do during an active shooter situation. Although the program is not yet available, Scott said it should be ready within the next three weeks.
The second part will be a live presentation involving the weapons the officers learn how to disarm. There is no date set, but Scott plans to begin within the coming month.
Students will be taught the proper way to “attack the attacker” and how to tell when a weapon cannot be used, like when it needs to be reloaded or when it is in a locked position, Scott said.
“Most people have no concept of how most firearms work,” he said. “Knowing when the weapon is not in function might give you an extra five or six seconds.
“It may not be a lot of time, but it may be enough to save your life.”
