By John Terhune
Source Portland Press Herald, Maine
Hours before Gov. Janet Mills was scheduled to speak publicly for the first time about the an investigative report into the Lewiston mass shooting, Maine State Police released an after-action report Friday morning analyzing how the agency responded to the attack and how it can do better in handling future crises.
The 33-page report highlighted many of the same areas of improvement state police leaders have already discussed at public hearings held before the state commission earlier this year, including the need for more interdepartmental training on the incident command system organizational structure police use during large operations.
The report also called for more active shooter training for the department's tactical team and a review of the department's policies regarding communication with the Deaf community and non-English speakers.
The state police report was prompted in part by the commission Mills set up to investigate the shooting.
The commission's final report focused especially on steps that the gunman's Army Reserve commanders and the Sagadahoc County Sheriff's Office did not take after learning of violent threats he had made against his unit's Saco base.
But the report did not recommend specific policy changes that might prevent future shootings. According to the chair, Daniel Wathen, that would have been outside the bounds of mission set by Mills and Attorney General Aaron Frey: to "determine the facts" around the shooting.
Mills is scheduled to speak about her thoughts on the report at 1 p.m. in Augusta.
In a news release Thursday, the governor's office highlighted several law and budget initiatives aimed at improving public safety and mental health resources that she signed after the shooting, including improvements to Maine's yellow flag law — which the commission said a Sagadahoc deputy should have used to disarm the gunman a month before the attack.
The state police after-action report outlines how its officers responded to the mass shooting, highlighting what went well and recommendations for changes. It details six primary recommendations that center largely on training and coordination with other agencies. They are:
- Incorporate additional active shooting training in order to have a more coordinated response during mass casualty incidents.
- Develop investigative crime scene protocols with federal partners and train hospitals on evidence collection.
- Incorporate advanced incident command system training for all state police personnel and conduct regular tabletop and full-scale exercises with state police leadership and partner agencies.
- Limit self-deployment when incident command is established and active.
- Review and evaluate policies for responding to incidents involving people who are deaf, hard of hearing or non-English speaking.
- Train managers on psychological first aid so they can identify signs of psychological trauma in employees and make referrals for treatment.
The report also concludes many tactics state police did well, including establishing a command with an hour that coordinated 29 formal tactical missions and managed resources for the 48-hour manhunt. Tactical resources followed leads in three towns covering more than 300 square miles, prioritizing locations with the highest risk to the public, according to the report.
"This all occurred without any other citizens or officers being injured," the report said.
But self-deployment of tactical teams in Lewiston that did not report to command "created an uncontrolled influx of resources causing serious safety issues and duplication of work," according to the report. Tactical command should have required representatives from each team to remain in the area to allow for better coordination and communication, the report said.
Multiple searches of Maine Recycling, where the gunman's body was eventually found, also highlighted the need for real time mapping software, according to the report.
State police also concluded that the agency needs better coordination with chaplains and the attorney general's office on family notification. In some cases, individuals were notified of the death of a loved one "more than one way on more than one occasion," according to the report.
The agency also could have coordinated more access and availability for people who required translation services to communicate, the report said. Many family members of the deaf victims struggled to get access to information in the immediate aftermath of the shooting.
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