While he says he’s “very happy” with the way Providence police and fire personnel responded to the shooting at Brown University, Mayor Brett Smiley is asking a consulting firm to conduct an official review.
Smiley has faced criticism for choosing not to send out cell phone alerts to the community immediately following the shooting. He responded to his critics, and hit on other topics, in the latest edition of One-on-One with Ian Donnis.
Interview highlights
On his initial reaction to the Brown University shooting
Brett Smiley: So it hit home pretty quickly that people were looking to folks like me to try to try to assess how they should feel and sort of key off of my energy and our energy. Are we anxious and freaked out, or are we calm and prepared? So I tried to display that calm, but also display the emotion, too.
We did have a plan. I had a high degree of confidence in our police department and we were getting a lot of help, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t sad and tragic and emotional. And so allowing myself to show those feelings as well was, I think, important for the whole community.
On the city’s response to the shooting
Smiley: The Providence police had been doing joint training exercises for a long time – well before I became mayor – and had done the most recent joint training exercise with Brown police as recently as six months prior.
Over the summer, my first year as mayor, I was at a U.S. mayors’ conference. There was a panel on mass shootings and there were mayors on the panel who had all experienced mass shootings in their cities. The conclusion at the end of the panel was: “It’s not a question of if, it’s a question of when. And you need to be ready.”
I came home from that conference resolved to double-check all of our protocols, to ask about the trainings that we had done. One of the things that we hadn’t done in a little while was a full-scale mock training exercise. We ended up using, actually, the Carl Lauro School, which was closed at the time. We had actors stand in as victims… That was really helpful to us.
On lessons learned from the shooting
Smiley: So we’ve gone through a process of the initial internal reviews and (working with) police, fire, emergency management. Earlier this week, I directed the Emergency Management Agency to actually hire a third-party independent entity to review our response; to look at what lessons can be learned, and what trainings and what tools and technology would be helpful in the future. I look forward to the full complete report, which will be shared with the community when that’s done. That will take months. I (don’t) want to set people’s expectations. That’s going to be in-depth.
I’ll tell you on first pass, after these initial reviews, I’m very happy with and entirely satisfied with police and fire’s initial response. (The response) within that first hour was excellent. From the time that the 911 call came in, which was 4:05 p.m., to the time the first police officer arrived on scene, was less than five minutes. That’s much faster than the national standard. You’re not going to do better than that.
On his decision not to issue cellphone alerts following the shooting
Smiley: The Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency has a notification process where they can, without consent, send out text messages; things like an Amber Alert or maybe a hurricane warning. It’s actually not a best practice in the occasion of an active shooter to send out those alerts because the audible notification that occurs can disclose the location of someone who might be hiding from a shooter. So I don’t regret that decision.
We are exploring what other tools might be available to us. Today… you must sign up for 311 notifications. Is there something in between that might better notify the community, but that doesn’t endanger anybody? That’s what we’re exploring right now and looking to see what other options may be available to us.
On the likelihood of increased ICE activity in Providence
Smiley: In Providence, and certainly we would hope that it does not occur here, but we need to assume with this president anything’s possible. And so we are preparing for that, as well. We’ve taken actions. I signed an executive order earlier in the fall. The city council updated a city ordinance, with respect to immigration cooperation, which I was proud to sign.
I think we’ve got the right regulations and rules in place, but we’re looking to regularly update and constantly reevaluate what our options are when you have a federal agency that is endangering communities as opposed to protecting communities.
