One year later, lessons learned from Navy Yard massacre

Radio channels were overloaded. Police officers had no familiarity with the military base they were responding to. Emergency calls reporting an active shooter were routed to two separate 911 call centers.

Police and military agencies faced these problems and others as first responders flooded the Washington Navy Yard one year ago, after receiving reports that a gunman was shooting people inside the military complex.

Out of the ordeal, law enforcement agencies drafted after-action reports detailing the lessons learned from the incident and are still working on implementing the conclusions of those studies.

Over the course of 69 minutes, military contractor Aaron Alexis killed 12 people as he moved methodically through Building 197 and indiscriminately opened fire on employees and security personnel. Law enforcement officers shot and killed Alexis, ending his rampage. But the chaotic ordeal was far from over as multiple federal and local law enforcement agencies tried to work together to rule out the involvement of a second shooter, to locate victims and extract others trapped inside, and later investigate the sprawling crime scene.

In the months after the shooting spree, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service announced it would fast-track a program to train tactical-style teams that would be able to respond to active shooter situations at Navy and Marine Corps bases. An NCIS agent was the first law enforcement official to arrive at Building 197 after Alexis opened fire.

“The sad reality is that NCIS must, like other law enforcement agencies, be better prepared to respond to active shooter incidents because unfortunately they are happening more and more frequently,” NCIS Director Andrew L. Traver said.

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This week, team leaders on the Rapid Emergency Action Counter Threat teams are receiving instruction on subjects such as firearms and emergency medicine, NCIS spokesman Ed Buice said. Other team members are expected to be selected in coming months.

Some of the problems detailed by responding agencies are simple fixes. To ensure that officers can hear radio calls when in loud and chaotic situations, the Metropolitan Police Department is issuing all officers ear pieces. Other solutions are more complex.

One of the problems pointed out by D.C. police was the fact that 911 calls made from Navy Yard complex phones were routed to the Naval District of Washington’s emergency call center while calls made by cellphone went to the District’s 911 call center.

“The practice of independent emergency call-taking services may have created a gap, or at least the potential for a gap, in emergency (911) communications during the day of the shooting,” the report notes.

But the practice of having a separate emergency call center for a military installation itself was the result of an after-action report made in the wake of the 2009 Fort Hood shooting in Texas. If two emergency call systems are to be in place, MPD suggested that dispatchers and call takers from the two agencies need better familiarity with one another and make it a practice to train together.

D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier also noted in the Metropolitan Police Department’s report that at least 117 officers from eight different agencies entered Building 197 in an attempt to bring down the shooter.

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The D.C. police report analyzed 35 issues with the agency’s response to the incident — noting among its findings multiple instances when radio communication became a problem. The report said officers from various agencies were operating on different radio channels and unable to communicate. At the same time, more than 1,000 radios were tuned to the channel that was being used — congesting the channel and preventing officers inside the compound from transmitting “vital information.”

“MPD is exploring the establishment of a secure multi-jurisdictional tactical channel and separate support channel and developing the appropriate policies and ensur[ing] officers know how and when to utilize those channels,” the report suggests as a solution.

Meanwhile the U.S. Park Police, which helped to airlift victims to safety from the roof of a Navy Yard building, said the cross training with other agencies and the proximity of their own officers to the scene was paramount in helping with the operation.

“Integrated trainings with Metropolitan Police Department and other aviation units allowed for operational unified command which proved to be essential,” U.S. Park Police spokeswoman Sgt. Lelani Woods said. “Officers undergoing active shooter training allowed for interagency personnel to seamlessly integrate as one.”

Assessments by other involved agencies also promised action.

Coming under fire because it missed warnings in the background checks of Alexis, the Pentagon promised to cut the number of people granted secret clearance and to create a threat management system that will automatically check databases to see whether those who have clearance have had any recent run-ins with the law.

But on Tuesday, one year since the shooting, the focus won’t be on the lessons learned but on the remembrance of those who died.

Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus is hosting an invitation-only remembrance ceremony at 8 a.m. Tuesday at the Washington Navy Yard. A public ceremony will take place at 6 p.m. in Canal Park, located between Canal and L Streets in Southeast.