Nothing Sticks Until Emergency Management Leads ASIM Readiness

After more than 2,700 active shooter exercises and thousands of hours in the field, we see the same pattern over and over:

Individual agencies try to fix the problem on their own.
They train their people. They adjust their SOPs. They feel more confident.

Then a real multi-agency incident or large-scale exercise hits, and the seams show.
Different playbooks. Different language. Different expectations.

The lesson is clear: change does not stick until emergency management leads it.

This paper explains why, and what emergency managers can do to lead Active Shooter Incident Management (ASIM) readiness for their communities.

The Readiness Gap: From "We Hope" To "We Know"

Most communities today sit somewhere between:

• "We hope we're ready" and
• "We can prove we're ready."

Individual agencies may have strong internal plans. Many have logged hours of active shooter training. Yet when police, fire, EMS, dispatch, and emergency management must act as one team, under pressure, gaps appear:

• Conflicting policies between neighboring jurisdictions
• Different terms for the same roles
• Separate radio plans
• Training done in silos

Leaders feel this. Most chiefs and emergency managers have had the late-night question:

"I think we're ready. But do I actually know we're ready when everyone shows up together?"

That is a regional problem, not a single-agency problem. And regional problems live in emergency management's lane.

Why Single-Agency ASIM Efforts Fail

We see the same movie in many counties:

1. A police or fire agency sends people to ASIM training.
2. They come back convinced. The checklist makes sense. The simulations prove it works.
3. They try to implement ASIM inside their own department first.
4. They hit a wall.

The predictable failure modes:

• No buy-in from other disciplines. "We've always done it this way" from neighbors.
• Politics, personalities, and egos. One chief pushing a "new way" on everyone else can trigger resistance.
• Siloed training. Law enforcement trains alone. Fire and EMS train alone. Dispatch is left out.
• Different playbooks on game day. One group is on the ASIM Checklist. Others are on entirely different plans or have nothing written at all.

In a real event, that costs time. It increases the risk of confusion and even "blue-on-blue" situations when units act on different priorities.

The reality is simple: you cannot run one playbook in one agency and another playbook next door and expect a smooth outcome. Everyone who will show up to the incident needs to be on the same regional plan.

No single police chief or fire chief can make that happen alone.

The Nature of the Problem: Community, Not Department

Active shooter and hostile event response is never "just" a police problem or "just" a school problem.

On any realistic incident, everybody is coming:

• Municipal and county law enforcement
• Fire and EMS (often with different governance)
• Private or third-service EMS
• 911 / dispatch
• Emergency management
• Sometimes state and federal partners

These incidents also cross jurisdictional lines:

• Cities within a county
• Counties in a region
• Special districts and authorities

The only way to manage that complexity is with:

• One shared playbook
• One shared language
• One shared plan for training, exercises, and after-action work

That is exactly what emergency management already does in other hazards.

Why Emergency Management Is Uniquely Positioned To Lead

Emergency management is the only discipline whose normal job already spans:

• Planning and policy. Writing and updating the EOP and annexes.
• Training and exercises. Owning the THIRA / HSEEP cycle and integrated exercise calendar.
• Multi-agency coordination. Bringing police, fire, EMS, public works, schools, and others into one system.
• Documentation and after-action. Capturing lessons, tracking improvements, and updating plans.
• Funding and grants. Navigating HSGP, EMPG, SHSP, UASI, and local funds.

In other words, emergency management already owns four of the five ASIM Readiness Scorecard categories:

1. Policy & Planning
2. People & Training
3. Exercises & Performance
4. Communications & Coordination

The fifth category, Documentation & Governance, also naturally lives with EM.

Beyond structure, emergency managers bring three practical advantages:

1. Relationships. EMs usually maintain the "Rolodex" of who to call, in every agency and jurisdiction. They can convene the right chiefs, sheriffs, school leaders, and dispatch directors in one room.
2. Neutral ground. EM sits outside the rank structures of police and fire. Line staff and first-line supervisors can approach the EM directly with ideas and concerns.
3. Access to top leadership. EMs often work closely with county and city administrators. They can help formalize a countywide plan and get it adopted.

This combination makes emergency management the only role that can reliably:

• Build a shared ASIM plan across agencies and jurisdictions
• Keep that plan maintained over time
• Tie it into funding, exercises, and after-action work

What It Looks Like When Emergency Management Leads

We have seen this model succeed at county and state scale.

County-Level Example

In one county, a city police department and fire department sent a small group of people to ASIM Advanced. About half a dozen champions on each side wanted to implement ASIM countywide. They faced:

• Over two dozen municipalities
• County-level agencies
• A wide range of existing policies, from 40-page manuals to nothing written at all

They knew they could not push this alone. So they went to their emergency manager.

Here is what happened:

1. EM convened the room. Police, fire, EMS, and dispatch leaders from across the county met together.
2. Everyone acknowledged the problem. They saw the patchwork of plans and the risk it created.
3. Training was expanded. Using grants and local funds, the county brought more agencies through ASIM training.
4. A single checklist-based plan was adopted. The ASIM Checklist became the county's active shooter operating picture.
5. ASIM Basic Train-the-Trainer was funded. Over 12 months, the EM's office used grant funding so local trainers could deliver ASIM Basic.
6. Coverage reached essentially 100%. By the end of the year, roughly every police, fire, and EMS responder in the county had been trained on ASIM Basic.

This only worked because emergency management led it. No single city department could have secured the funding, convened the agencies, and formalized the countywide plan.

State-Level Example

We have also seen a state adopt ASIM statewide through its emergency management program. The state emergency management organization:

• Anchored ASIM within existing state plans
• Used state-level grant streams to fund training
• Set expectations that local agencies align to a shared checklist-based process

Again, the pattern is the same: when EM leads, ASIM readiness becomes a system, not a one-off class.

A Practical Roadmap For Emergency Managers

If you are an emergency manager and you recognize this gap in your region, here is a simple, practical way to lead ASIM readiness.

1. Name the Risk and Own the Problem

Start by stating the obvious:

• Your community is at the same risk as any other for an active shooter or hostile event.
• No single agency will handle it alone.
• Therefore, readiness must be a shared, regional responsibility.

Frame this as your problem to solve:

"Shared plans are my domain. We cannot solve active shooter response until emergency management solves it."

This clears the way for others to follow your lead.

2. Convene the Right Room

Call an initial meeting with:

• Police chiefs and sheriffs
• Fire and EMS chiefs (including private or third-service EMS if applicable)
• 911 / dispatch leadership
• School or campus safety leaders, where applicable
• Key city / county administrators as appropriate

Set one clear objective for the meeting:

"We are here to talk about how we move from hoping we are ready to knowing we are ready, together."

Your goals for this first session:

• Surface concerns and objections
• Acknowledge that this is a community problem, not a single-agency issue
• Establish that one shared playbook is the only acceptable standard

3. Map the Current State With a Readiness Lens

Use an ASIM-style readiness lens to assess:

• Policies and plans across agencies
• Who has been trained, on what, and when
• What exercises have been run and who participated
• How communications and mutual aid are supposed to work
• What documentation and after-action work actually exists

Expect to find:

• Some agencies with detailed documents
• Some with minimal or no written plan
• Uneven levels of training and exercise experience

This is normal. The point is not to shame anyone. The point is to see the system as a whole.

4. Agree On One Regional ASIM Plan

With the current state visible, guide the group toward one shared operational model:

• A single active shooter incident management checklist
• Common roles and terminology across police, fire, EMS, and dispatch
• A clear concept of operations for integrated response

Formalize this as:

• Updates to the county or regional emergency operations plan and annexes
• Supporting SOPs within each agency that point back to the same ASIM model

Where your jurisdiction allows, have elected officials or senior administrators adopt the plan so it has clear authority.

5. Build an Integrated Training and Exercise Program

Next, convert the paper plan into real capability:

• Use ASIM training (including Train-the-Trainer where appropriate) to give responders a shared mental model.
• Run progressive exercises: tabletop → simulations → full-scale.
• Make sure all disciplines and mutual-aid partners participate, not just one department.

Your target is not "hours logged." Your target is:

• Cross-agency teams that can actually run the checklist together under stress
• After-action findings that show steady improvement

6. Secure Funding and Sustainment

Use your normal EM tools to keep the system alive:

• Tie training and exercise work into grant applications and work plans.
• Set a multi-year schedule for refreshers and re-tests.
• Track who has been trained and when they need updates.
• Use after-action reports to drive updates to plans, training, and exercises.

In short, treat ASIM readiness the same way you treat flood, hurricane, or tornado readiness: as a long-term program, not a one-time project.

What To Ask Your Emergency Manager To Do

If you are a police officer, firefighter, EMT, dispatcher, or supervisor who has seen ASIM in action and wants it in your community, your next move is not to jump the chain of command to your chief.

Instead, take a simple ask to your emergency manager:

1. Explain what you saw in ASIM training and why it worked.
2. Make the case that your department has a plan, but it is not a shared plan.
3. Say this plainly:

   "We cannot solve this as one department. We need a countywide plan, and shared plans are your lane."

4. Ask them to convene the first meeting of chiefs and key leaders to discuss a regional ASIM-based plan.
5. Offer to help however you can.

Most emergency managers will welcome this. Funding, planning, and relationships are exactly what they bring to the table.

Conclusion

In a crisis, we do not rise to the level of our hopes. We fall to the level of our training and our systems.

Active shooter incident management is a system problem:

• Multi-agency
• Multi-jurisdiction
• High-consequence

Individual departments cannot fix a system problem alone. Only emergency management sits at the right nexus of planning, training, exercises, documentation, and funding to make ASIM readiness real and durable.

When emergency management leads:

• Agencies share one playbook
• Training and exercises match the real response picture
• Documentation backs up leaders when they have to stand in front of cameras, councils, and courts

That is what our communities expect. And that is the standard we should demand of ourselves.

If you are an emergency manager, this is your lane.
If you are a responder, this is the conversation to start.

Nothing sticks until emergency management leads ASIM readiness. It is time to lead.