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| Writing the riot playbook |
| By Ann Coppola, News Reporter |
| Published: 05/21/2007 |
Mock Riot march through MoundsvilleThe eleventh annual Mock Prison Riot at the former West Virginia Penitentiary in Moundsville, West Virginia wrapped up last week with record-breaking attendance, groundbreaking technology demonstrations, and even a parade. So what are the masterminds behind the event doing to celebrate? They’re planning for next year. The riot, which drew an estimated 1,700 participants this year, offered three non-stop days of free training scenarios, workshops and certification classes for teams from corrections departments and other law enforcement agencies. In addition, vendors from around the world came to showcase new law enforcement technology. “This is a huge undertaking,” says Steve Morrison, director of the Office of Law Enforcement Technology Commercialization (OLETC), which, along with the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), and the National Corrections and Law Enforcement Training and Technology Center (NCLETTC), sponsors the riot. “We plan year-round. As soon as it’s over, we start thinking ahead for next year. We’ve had to develop a ‘mock riot playbook’ so that if today a bomb dropped on West Virginia Penitentiary, someone could start it all up somewhere else. It’s a lot of work.” A peak into this year’s playbook would reveal an estimated $300,000 budget, financed by NIJ, and 71 different training scenarios for 41 registered tactical teams, up from 56 scenarios and 30 teams last year. The teams request the scenarios and OLETC turns them into unpredictable chaos.  Rioting inmate complies for tactical team “We allow teams to tell us where their deficiencies are,” explains Morrison. “We let them write a scenario, and then we change it around so they don’t know what’s coming. Choreographed training won’t help a team learn what doesn’t work, so we change it to make it real time, real life, and on-the-spot decision making.” Collaboration between teams and organizers helps OLETC create a mock riot that is relevant to and current with officers’ concerns. “After the shootings at Virginia Tech, we’ve actually had a huge increase in requests for active shooter training,” Morrison says. “One year we had a team that wanted to know the best way to handle a pregnant inmate during a crisis. We had a female dressed as a pregnant inmate and the team learned how to handle the situation without injuring the baby or the inmate.”  Tactical team member using PepperBall in a riot situation. Training scenarios also give COs and other tactical team members the opportunity to use and evaluate new technology. “One of our newest technologies is the ‘Shocknife,’” says Morrison. “It provides an electrical current through the blade of a plastic knife. When you pull it across the skin, it feels like a cut, but leaves no wounds. It’s utilized as a training device in realistic knife fighting in close-quarters battle.” Morrison adds, “For our night vision course the teams will utilize our ‘dungeon’ down in the basement of the penitentiary in order to use no-light technologies in combat.” The night vision course is one of 31 topics addressed by the 78 workshop sessions at this year’s riot. Other topics include deciphering encrypted gang writing, flying armed on a commercial flight with an inmate, and basic rappelling skills.  Using new biometric technology “We’re always trying to make sure it doesn’t get monotonous,” Morrison says. “We can’t do the same thing every year, and we’re constantly looking to change things up.” As a result of that philosophy, this year’s riot offered a number of “first-evers.” “This will be the first year with an evening scenario,” he explains. “We’ve never had a nighttime scenario before. Also, Canada is now scheduled to be the first ever international team to participate in a scenario.” In addition to representatives from Canada, this year’s riot drew 443 different law enforcement agencies representing 39 states and seven foreign countries, among which were first time participants Singapore, Brazil and Norway. The first official Mock Prison Riot Command March was another premier feature. The teams dressed in full tactical gear and marched with their state flags from the prison into Moundsville passing three schools and 600 cheering schoolchildren.  Ariel view of march “The officers voted for this parade,” says Morrison. “They wanted the community to see them in their gear, representing their states. It’s nice to have the kids and civilians see it all.” Working with the surrounding community is an integral part of the event too. “This takes partnerships from everybody. We have people assist us in the medical community, and volunteer fire department helps as well. We have criminal justice students from local colleges that volunteer to be inmates.” Inmates are traditionally played by Wheeling Jesuit University lacrosse players. “They’re very good at taunting those officers,” says Morrison. “They don’t talk very nicely to them.” For all of the casting and scheduling the mock riot requires, sometimes even the choreographers don’t know what’s coming. “Last year they kept talking about a secret scenario, which actually turned out to be taking me hostage,” Morrison recalls. “They took me down to where they already had started a riot in the south yard. The riot team was there with attack dogs on and everything.” (Hear a podcast of Morrison describing last year’s hostage-taking) Morrison says the goal is keep scenarios unpredictable but he underscores the importance of safety. “It takes a lot of coordination to run all of our scenarios, and our primary goal is officer safety,” he says. “We’ve stopped using fully loaded flash-bangs, which is a diversionary device used to enter a room. They were causing debris to sometimes fly up and injure participants. We don’t allow any impact weapons to hit and hurt people either.”  Bombot shooting a PepperBall gun. In fact, OLETC does not allow any live ammunition onto the grounds of the penitentiary during the mock riot. Keeping everybody safe while providing vital training that simulates real life scenarios is probably the riot’s most successful strategy in the playbook that is filled with ideas to keep teams coming back for more. And as satisfied as he is about this year’s winner, Morrison still itches for another riot. “We’ve shattered all of our world records this year,” Morrison reflects. “But I’m already thinking about what’s next.” Related resources: Learn more about OLETC |
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