Orange County provides active shooter awareness training to places of worship

GOSHEN — Orange County Executive Steven M. Neuhaus and Sheriff Carl E. DuBois collaborated with U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s staff to co-host active shooter response training for local places of worship on Thursday at the County’s Emergency Services Center.
About 100 people attended the free event.
“We hope that none of the attendees will ever need to utilize this training, but in today’s world we need to know what to do in the event of an active shooter situation,” Neuhaus said. “Security and emergency preparedness is something that religious leaders must take into consideration during their daily operations. I think the active shooter training was timely and informative. We received excellent feedback and I appreciate Senator Gillibrand’s office collaborating with the County on this important forum.”
Neuhaus, DuBois and Gillibrand’s Hudson Valley Director, Susan Spear welcomed attendees to the seminar.
Assistant Undersheriff Anthony Weed, Sgt. John Trazino and Lieutenant Duane Lopez from the Orange County Sheriff’s Office Special Operations Group made a presentation during the two-hour training session.
It featured information on how to recognize signs of potential workplace violence, how to respond to active shooter or other workplace violence situations and how to create an active shooter emergency action plan.
Terence Hoey and Joe Tadrick from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Lt. Nick McAteer of Holy Rosary Parish in Greenwood Lake and Operation Archangel also made presentations.
The program concluded with a question and answer session.
“Unfortunately, in today’s environment these types of situations can arise in public places,” DuBois said. “That is why the Orange County Sheriff’s Office continues to advocate active shooter training for all county staff and civilians. These types of seminars are well worth the time and effort invested. We look forward to working with places of worship and other segments of the community on forums such as this in the future.”