BARTLETT, Tenn. — A group of pastors went through active shooter training at the Bartlett Police Department on Wednesday night.
The training was intended to help them be better prepared but mainly to give those pastors a sense of how police officers handle these type of situations.
Pastor Fred Shackleford runs Ellendale Baptist Church on Broadway Road. He says he and the other pastors went through the training with fake, plastic guns. Bartlett police posted pictures of it on social media.
“It was funny. I had somebody on Facebook said that would keep me awake in church, and I said, only if I threw it at you,” Pastor Shackleford said, “Just useful to know what (officers) can do.”
This is the first time clergy have teamed up with Bartlett Police for an active shooter drill.
It’s part of a program called the “Clergy Citizens Academy,” a partnership between police and Bartlett churches designed to reduce crime.
Shackleford said the training was on how to respond to, for example, a teenager who’d been exposed to sexting.
“Some sort of legal activity in that regard, like, what do we do?” Pastor Shackleford said, “The main thing is you turn that over to police. You don’t try to investigate yourself.”
The academy runs through the end of summer.
