YOUNGSTOWN — The tragic 2022 Uvalde, Texas, elementary school shootings that killed 17 children and two adults was a catalyst for law enforcement to think about active shooter situations differently.

“A few years ago when Uvalde happened, we realized we needed to upgrade our training,” Youngstown Police Department Capt. Rod Foley said. “Twenty to 30 years ago, when I first started, it was always ‘contain the problem, wait for the SWAT to arrive.’ But we found out through the research, the data, that unfortunately some of the individuals, when they are committing these crimes, will keep committing these crimes while you are there waiting, like Uvalde did.”

In Uvalde, while officers waited outside trying to determine what to do, the shooter was still shooting students and teachers, “and that’s what we realized is, we really need to emphasize to officers who respond to these types of events that you need to act,” except in certain circumstances, Foley said. “We want to make sure we prevent anyone else from being harmed.”

The concepts were part of the annual training the Youngstown Police Department carried out with the Ohio Tactical Officers Association during the past five weeks. But Foley discussed the idea with the Ohio Attorney General’s Office of doing the training jointly with departments that touch the boundaries of Youngstown, and the office agreed to fund it, Foley said. It became a pilot program.

By training jointly, 185 officers from 19 law enforcement agencies were trained, each officer for two days.

On Wednesday, Foley, Youngstown police Chief Carl Davis and others invited the news media to come inside a Market Street warehouse where the training took place to learn about it and see it in action.

Foley, who is head of the Youngstown department’s planning and training, said when an active threat situation occurred in Lowellville several years ago, it suggested training jointly would be helpful because it was apparent officers from various departments were thinking in different ways about the situation.

“We had probably over 100 officers that arrived, all with a different action plan, all with a different idea. So we wanted to make sure that we come together in the future with the same thought process, same decision making and try to get us all on the same page and make sure we take care of the threat,” he said.

Another focus of this year’s training was giving officers training and practice in using rifles. The Youngstown Police Department switched about a year ago from shotguns to rifles, so Youngstown officers were going to benefit from more practice with them, Foley said.

Other areas covered were de-escalation training and making sure officers know what the case law and state law say about use of force. A lot of times there are “gray areas” on when deadly force should be used, Foley said.

“We want to make sure officers know they are on good legal footing before they act,” he said.

The agencies that received the training were the Youngstown Police Department, Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office, Niles Police Department, Mercy Health Police Department, Youngstown State Police Department, Columbiana County Sheriff’s Office, Trumbull County Sheriff’s Office, Struthers Police Department, Poland Township Police Department, Youngstown housing enforcement officers, Roswell Police Department, Mahoning Valley Violent Crimes Task Force, Weathersfield Police Department, Liberty Police Department, Lordstown Police Department, Cortland Police Department, Ohio State Highway Patrol, Trumbull Action Group law enforcement task force, New Waterford Police Department, Milton Police Department and Youngstown Municipal Court police officers.