The Office of Public Safety & Security (OPSS) is implementing a new response training program, ALICE, to educate St. Joe’s students, faculty and staff members about how to respond to critical situations with five steps: alert, lockdown, inform, counter and evacuate.
The ALICE program is designed to teach the safest courses of action during a crisis situation, expanding upon the university’s current “run, hide, fight” active shooter protocol, said Public Safety Lieutenant Nicole Smith. ALICE involves interactive training sessions and role-playing scenarios to help members of the St. Joe’s community practice protecting themselves.
Smith said the main idea of the ALICE training is to give trainees the tools for evaluating a critical situation to help themselves and others.
“You only have a split second to make a choice, and that split second can either be life-saving or fatal,” Smith said. “At the end of the day, the first and most important person is you. If you cannot save yourself, how can you save others?”
ALICE training began in 2000 as a school security training company. Now a part of Navigate360, an organization that develops safety and wellness preparations centered around active shooter preparedness, ALICE is used in over 6,000 schools across the county, providing training and preparation for active shooter events.
Implementing a new crisis response training program can also help raise awareness on how to react in stressful situations, according to Allen York, Public Safety certified security officer.
“Some people [have] never heard a gunshot before. Some people [have] never been in a stressful situation,” York said. “By reenacting some of these things, when the time does arise, they won’t freeze.”
David Finnie, assistant vice president of Public Safety, said it is important for everyone in the St. Joe’s community to attend training sessions like ALICE because “public safety is everybody’s responsibility.”
“It was a university goal last year to revise or have a brand new emergency operations plan for the university, and I really believe that’s what kicked us off,” Finnie said. “In support of ensuring that we have a safe campus, the ALICE program complements that because we wanted to ensure that community members had the necessary tools and skills to help themselves in an active shooter incident.”
Milton O’Brien ’25, president of the University Student Senate, said the ALICE training will be beneficial for St. Joe’s community members, and reflects what Student Senate has asked Public Safety in regards to crisis training.
“I think Public Safety is taking the right step on making sure that these type of programs are available to the students,” O’Brien said. “I’m really, really happy to see [Assistant] Vice President Finnie and the new Director [of Public Safety Brandon] Pasquale are taking this direction and making sure that our community is informed.”
Public Safety plans to hold ALICE training sessions throughout the semester, Finnie said.
