Law Enforcement Training Drill Conducted Saturday Morning

The Hardin County Sheriff’s Office conducted a training exercise this past Saturday morning. Approximately a total of 15 officers from both the Sheriff’s Department and Kenton Police Department attended the drill at Upper Scioto Valley Local Schools. It was designed to be prepared for an active shooter threat.

Sheriff Keith Everhart explained the purpose of the drill. “The main purpose of this training is, unfortunately, the world we live in. We have to train for this. We have to train for active shooters. God forbid anything ever happened in Hardin County. But if it does, we’re going to make sure that we were trained to the best of our ability and to deal with the threat and to save students and faculties lives. I mean it’s a shame that we have to train like this, but we would not be doing our jobs if we didn’t.”

When it comes to the training, the officers use modified rifles that rely on CO2 cartridges which shoot an approximate 8-millimeter plastic round. Everhart explained the importance of training with these modified rifles. “The point of that is you don’t want to use one type of weapon in your training and then in the real-life scenario, it’s totally different.”

The Sheriff’s Department uses what is called a shot box which simulates the sound of gunfire instead of using blank rounds. Everhart said this helps keep the cost down while at the same time providing the training required for the officers.

As far as how often the officers train, Sheriff Everhart said “We try to do them at least two schools a year. You know, cause unfortunately, you got to take finances into account. You know all these guys getting paid, you know, to be here. So, you can’t do it every weekend like I’d like to, but we try to do at least two a year. Two major trainings like this a year and bounce around to different schools.”