When officers enter a crisis site during an active shooter /

They are immediately forced into two competing roles:

• Doers → Action-oriented, aggressive, moving toward the threat 
• Thinkers → Processing, organizing, prioritizing, coordinating  👉 The problem: If everyone is a doer → chaos If everyone is a thinker → paralysis  

👉 The problem:

• If everyone is a doer → chaos
• If everyone is a thinker → paralysis

  🔴 The “Doer”

• Moves to contact 
• Engages / clears / pushes      forward 
• Acts with urgency 
• Focused on Stop the      Killing 

Strengths

• Speed 
• Aggression 
• Initiative 
• Necessary to end the threat 

Risks

• Tunnel vision 
• Missed victims 
• Over-penetration past threat      area 
• “Blue Tsunami” effect      (everyone stacks, nobody treats or evacuates) 

🔵 The “Thinker”

• Slows the moment down (just      enough) 
• Builds awareness of: 
  • Victims 
  • Threat status 
  • Resources 
• Begins organizing: 
  • Roles 
  • Movement 
  • Early command 

Strengths

• Situational awareness 
• Prevents duplication and chaos 
• Enables transition to Stop the Dying 

Risks

• Hesitation 
• Over-analysis 
• Delayed action when threat still active

👉 Inside the crisis site, you don’t get separate people—

you must become BOTH. But not at the same time.

Phase-Based Application (Critical)

Phase 1: Stop the Killing

• Primary mindset: DOER 
• Move to threat 
• Neutralize / contain / bypass to contact 

BUT…

👉 Even here, a micro-thinker must exist:

• Who’s behind me? 
• Where are victims? 
• Where did shots come from? 

Phase 2: Threat Controlled / Contained / Fled

• Immediate shift required → THINKER activates 

This is where most failures occur. Officers stay in “doer mode” too long

Result:

• Victims bleed out 
• No structure 
• No evacuation 
• No corridor 
• No RTF integration 

The Critical Transition Question

Ask officers: 👉 “At what exact moment do you stop being just a doer?”

Correct answer: The moment the threat is no longer actively killing people.

Not:

• When command tells you 
• When Fire arrives 
• When the scene feels safe 

What the “Thinker” Does Inside

This is your Tac-1 / interior command mindset

• Establish initial command presence 
• Assign roles (even informally): 
  • “You hold this hallway” 
  • “You start moving victims” 
• Identify: 
  • Casualty clusters 
  • Safe directions of movement 
• Begin: 
  • Secure corridor concept 
  • Movement toward ATP 

Tie to Your Doctrine (SIM)

Once threat is controlled:

• S – Security      
  • Maintain coverage 
  • Don’t collapse protection 
• I – Incident Command / Immediate Action Plan
  • Someone is now thinking and organizing 
• M – Medical 
  • This DOES NOT wait 

👉 This is where doers must become thinkers

Common Failure Patterns

Use these to drive conversation:

• 1. Everyone Stays a Doer
• Officers keep clearing instead of treating 
• Victims ignored 
• 👉 Ask: Who owns the dying?
• 
  
• 2. Nobody Becomes the Thinker
• No one takes Tac-1 role 
• No structure inside 
• 👉 Ask: If not you, then who?
• 
  
• 3. Thinker Appears Too Late
• Happens only after supervisors arrive 
• 👉 Reality:
• The first officer inside may be the most important “thinker” in the entire incident
• 
  
• 4. Doers Abandon Medical Phase
• Shift focus to perimeter/search 
• RTF unsupported 
• 👉 Violates:
• Force protection 
• Corridor integrity 
• 
  
• Simple Mental Model for Officers
• Give them something they can remember under stress:
• “Hunt → Hold → Help”
• Hunt (Doer) 
• Hold (Security / structure begins) 
• Help (Thinker-driven medical phase) 

Bottom Line

👉 Inside the crisis site:

• You must start as a doer 
• You must quickly become a thinker 
• You may need to switch back and forth 

But if no one makes that transition:

We stop the killing… and fail to stop the dying