With an aim toward preparedness in their sights, the entire force of the Wilton Police Department is taking part in an annual, four-hour, hands-on active shooter/aggressor training session.
Half-day sessions are being conducted in-house by trained officers in an empty building in town that’s been made available for this purpose, and will conclude this week.
“The officers are training in active-aggressor, active-shooter response for the —hopefully never-occurring — incident in Wilton where we would have to respond to something like that,” Capt. Gregg Phillipson explained.
Phillipson said any scheduling soon after a Feb. 27 trespassing incident at Wilton High School was completely unrelated and coincidental.
“I know the latest news with the high school and everything,” he said. “That has nothing to do with this. This was planned long before that happened.”
The incident that occurred at WHS elicited fears from parents after an erroneous report circulated on social media that a shooter was on campus. School officials, who said they should have been more proactive in responding to the situation, have been making a closer examination of policies and practices in tandem with the police and other entities since it happened.
“We do this regularly,” Phillipson said, at least once a year. “This was scheduled months ago.”
“This is like a refresher training,” he said, with all 41 officers taking part, starting with the chief of police. “We’ve had this basic training before. We do it regularly, so we do a four-hour block of training just to make sure they’re up on their tactics and up on their practices.”
Wilton police prepare for an emergency attack situation. Credit: Jarret Liotta / GOOD Morning Wilton 
Lt. Steven Rangel during the training simulation. Credit: Jarret Liotta / GOOD Morning Wilton 
Det. Eddie Dolenk, left, and Sgt. Arnault Baker. Credit: Jarret Liotta / GOOD Morning Wilton 
Officer Scott Spezzano teaches tactics and strategies to other Wilton police. Credit: Jarret Liotta / GOOD Morning Wilton 
Town of Wilton police badge. Credit: Jarret Liotta / GOOD Morning Wilton 
Capt. Gregg Phillipson watches his team in training. Credit: Jarret Liotta / GOOD Morning Wilton 
Lt. Steven Rangel, left, and Officer Navin Nair take part in training. Credit: Jarret Liotta / GOOD Morning Wilton 
Sgt. Arnault Baker, left, and Lt. Steven Rangel watch their fellow officers doing the practice drill. Credit: Jarret Liotta / GOOD Morning Wilton 
Officer Matthew Cisewski helped conduct the training. Credit: Jarret Liotta / GOOD Morning Wilton 
Officer Navin Nair, left, and Detective Eddie Dolenk training with AR-15 platform rifles. Credit: Jarret Liotta / GOOD Morning Wilton 
Officer Navin Nair. Credit: Jarret Liotta / GOOD Morning Wilton
Officers were dressed in full gear and using their AR-15 platform rifles with dummy ammunition. Taking their direction from two Wilton officers who were handling the training, they discussed tactics, partook in drills, and then ran through several mock scenarios.
“We haven’t had this experience and we’re very thankful about that, obviously, but we want to make sure our officers are trained and prepared for if it does happen,” said Phillipson, who has been with the Wilton force for 23 years.
“Any kind of tactile training is going to help an officer to respond to any type of incident, but this block of instruction is particular toward an active aggressor (which) could occur in a school or in a commercial property or something like that,” he said.
While Wilton hasn’t seen such a situation, Phillipson said he has known officers in other municipalities who have been involved in them.
“The incidents are chaotic, they’re scary,” he said, “and giving the officers training to hopefully prepare them for those type of incidents is really the goal here.”