PCSO, BBB Hosting ALICE Training Session at Life Church

The Putnam County Sheriff’s Office and Better Business Bureau are partnering to offer a free ALICE training session to area businesses Tuesday.

PCSO Lieutenant Eric Hall said situations involving active shooters and aggressors have become more common across the country.

“We’re starting to see these things more and more even in Middle Tennessee and in Putnam County,” Hall said. “The Putnam County Sheriff’s Department and the Sheriff is really advocating to know what to do during one of these critical incidents.”

Hall said the training allows businesses and their employees to be prepared for worst-case scenarios in the workplace.

“We never know where something like this is going to happen and we have had incidents here in Middle Tennessee that we’ve heard about,” Hall said. “But it’s not just the workplace. It’s schools, churches, any places that people gather, you could have a problem.”

Hall said what people do in the moments of an active shooter or aggressor situation can make all the difference.

“It’s really common sense, but it’s not common knowledge,” Hall said. “What you do in that interim time between an incident happening and officers arriving… this information informs you what to do and it has a direct effect on your survivability of that incident if you know what to do.”

The training session begins at 8:30 a.m. at Life Church on North Washington Avenue in Cookeville. To reserve a seat, contact the Upper Cumberland Better Business Bureau office. The event is free and open to all area businesses.