Department of Justice Releases Incident Review of the Orlando Public Safety Response to the Attack on the Pulse Nightclub

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) today released Rescue, Response, and Resilience: An incident review of the Orlando public safety response to the attack on the Pulse nightclub. The review, conducted by the COPS Office in partnership with the Police Foundation, details all aspects of the June 12, 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting and its aftermath. The shooting, which was determined to be a terrorist attack, injured more than 100 people and resulted in the loss of 49 lives.

At the request of City of Orlando Police Department (OPD) Chief John Mina, the COPS Office and the Police Foundation conducted an independent critical incident review of the OPD response to the attack to identify best practices and lessons learned to improve the department’s planning, training, policies, procedures, and practices regarding events of this magnitude.

This thorough assessment determined that the OPD and their law enforcement partners responded to the attack in a manner consistent with recognized practices. It also produced other significant findings, to include:

•           The tactical response by the OPD was consistent with the department’s policies, procedures, and training as well as recognized practices;

•           The OPD successfully leveraged existing relationships with federal, state, and local public safety agencies in their response to the Pulse nightclub terrorist attack;

•           OPD leadership prioritized the mental health of all OPD personnel following the response to the Pulse attack;

•           Pre-existing Orlando police-community relationships, fostered and sustained over time, enhanced the resilience of the community in the aftermath of the Pulse terrorist shooting.

“I am grateful to Chief Mina, Orlando police officers, and other first responders who so bravely responded to this horrific act of violence and were willing to relive those events to provide such critical information for this assessment,” said COPS Office Acting Director Russ Washington. “Not only will this review be a valuable resource to the Orlando Police Department, but also to the thousands of law enforcement and public safety agencies across the nation who must prepare to face increasing acts of mass public violence and the growing threat of terrorism.”

Rescue, Response, and Resilience: An incident review of the Orlando public safety response to the attack on the Pulse nightclub is available to download on the COPS Office website: http://ric-zai-inc.com/ric.php?page=detail&id=COPS-W0857.

The COPS Office is a federal agency responsible for advancing community policing nationwide. Since 1994, the COPS Office has invested more than $14 billion to advance community policing, including grants awarded to more than 13,000 state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies to fund the hiring and redeployment of approximately 130,000 officers and provide a variety of knowledge resource products including publications, training and technical assistance. For additional information about the COPS Office, please visit www.cops.usdoj.gov