The University Police Department will offer training sessions next week on how to respond to an active shooter on campus as part of SF State’s Campus Safety Week, put on by the school’s enterprise risk management department.

According to UPD Chief Jason Wu, SF State’s training program was implemented in 2017 and — in addition to the sessions offered for Safety Week — is available on-demand at any time throughout the year. 

“We teach this concept of ‘Run-Hide-Fight,’” Wu said, referencing the FBI’s response protocol used throughout the California State University system. “How do you prepare yourself mentally if you hear sounds of screaming, or hear gunshots or see someone next to you being mortality wounded? It’s a training that we offer.”

An FBI study examining incidents from 2000 to 2013 in the United States involving active shooters, defined as “individual[s] actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a confined and populated area,” found that the average tally of 6.4 incidents per year in the first seven years of the study jumped to 16.4 incidents annually for the following seven years. A subsequent FBI study counted 20 incidents in both 2014 and 2015.

Despite the increasing frequency of active shooter events, the trainings are not mandatory at SF State.

“Students and staffs [sic] are highly encouraged to practice personal safety and be aware of their surroundings at all times,” Wu said in an email.

The upcoming one-hour sessions for Campus Safety Week are scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 19, at 10 a.m., Thursday, Sept. 20, at 1 p.m., and Friday, Sept. 21, at 3 p.m., and they will be presented by UPD Lieutenant Wailun Shiu in the J. Paul Leonard Library, Room 121.