Immediate action rapid deployment

Immediate action rapid deployment (IARD) is a police tactic where first responders, typically regular officers, actively confront a developing high-risk crisis. This is opposed to first responders acting to assemble a cordon around the crisis zone and then waiting for specialized special response units to spearhead a resolution.

IARD seeks to combat crimes which are generally the purview of special response units, but where special response units may not arrive in time to preserve the lives or property of victims.

Description

IARD is used to confront aggressive criminals who pose an immediate and life-threatening threat to public safety. These include violent criminals armed with personal weapons or in possession of bombs or weapons of mass destruction. Confronting these criminals is especially important when the crisis occurs in public spaces, public facilities or utilities, or other venues with large populations.

First responders are tasked with aggressively prosecuting a resolution to the crisis. They must swiftly locate and close in on threats, neutralizing them at the earliest opportunity. To do so they may be required to move through unsecured areas, past injured or panicked victims. Responders may, at their discretion, assist affected individuals.

IARD authorizes first responders to be proactive and disrupt a crime before criminals become "active shooters." IARD shares characteristics with active shooter response procedures.

Preparation

IARD exposes regular officers to increased risk, and is made possible by additional training and equipment. Officers may be provided with additional body armour, including helmets and ballistic shields, to be used at the crisis scene and not during regular duties. The equipment must be easy to put on: excessive time spent gearing up may forestall a decisive intervention.

Rationale

IARD is partially a response to murder–suicides where criminals attack large groups and then kill themselves when confronted by armed responders. In a school shooting scenario, the attacker seeks only to maximize casualties, with most occurring within the first 15 minutes. It is not feasible to follow a traditional hostage-type scenario and await a negotiator.

In these situations, first responders who quickly and decisively close with the attacker may prevent further casualties. At the very least, it prevents the attacker from establishing control over the environment needed to cause more casualties. IARD overcomes the inherent desire to take time to devise a solution that minimizes casualties amongst officer and victims, in situations where any delay causes further casualties.

However, as many schools have developed lock-down protocols in the wake of incidents such as Columbine, the increased risk posed by IARD may become inappropriate in such cases where the venue itself has already contained the shooter's movements and reduced the number of exposed targets in their locked down posture.

This may have been the rationale of the Uvalde, Texas police and sheriff departments on May 24, 2022. While responding to the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School, the police initially "engaged" the gunman before hiding. Literally hiding. For an hour. While 19 children and two teachers were massacred. A video shows parents, likely unarmed but apparently willing to do more than the police to save their children, willing to rush the school and do what they could but were stopped by authorities, who had high-powered weapons and body armor. Multiple police even had a man, possibly a father of one of the victims, pinned face-down on the ground while parents pleaded with the police who were eager to shoot unarmed protestors with "non-lethal" rounds and tear gas not two years ago and who want to give teachers weapons because yeah why listen to teachers who say they don't want that, to stop being cowards and actually do something. Gunshots, by the murderer, not the police, could be heard in the video, but the police did more to allow more children to be massacred than actually save any lives. Almost an hour. They did nothing. Because, as a DPS official said, “they could’ve been shot.” Easier to murder unarmed Black men than actually save lives, huh?

EMS response as part of IARD

Some emergency medical services (EMS) have changed their response to these events and have improved their aggression to be more in line with the rapid PD response. This new concept is commonly referred to as the rescue task force or RTF. The RTF is made up of a team of two medical personnel and 2-6 law enforcement officers. All personnel are trained in basic tactical movement, and the medical personnel operate utilizing protocols derived from the TCCC protocols used by the United States military in war zones to enter in with a police escort just behind the initial contact teams and provide immediate treatment to patients.