Utrecht Mass Shooting report praises police response, criticizes crisis communication

After a mass shooting in a tram in Utrecht on March 18th, the police responded quickly and effectively and acted according to prepared plans and protocols, according to an evaluation by an internal committee on the handling of the shooting. While the committee largely praised the police's actions, it concluded that there is room for improvement - especially when it comes to information exchange during crisis communication.

After the first reports of the shooting at 10:42 a.m. on March 18th, the emergency services acted quickly and effectively both at the scene of the shooting and elsewhere in the city. Emergency services were quickly at the scene, investigation immediately got started, and partly thanks to good contact with communities in the city, calm was largely preserved, the committee said.

The committee specifically addressed the use of the so-called Manhunt procedure - a procedure meant to speed up and streamline the operation of the entire Dutch police during a search for suspects that pose a major threat. Although this method was not fully implemented in Utrecht at the time of the shooting, it was largely successfully applied and resulted in the arrest of suspected gunman Gokmen T. shortly after 6:00 p.m. on that day. 

"The successful manhunt was on the one hand a good example of the coming together of old and new investigation methods," the committee said. It showcased the importance of being able to quickly gain access to police information and analyze it, and the successful operation between units. 

But on the other hand, the committee added, "this experience with the Manhunt procedure makes it clear that optimum returns can only be achieved with this procedure if information exchange and decision making are quick and adequate". 

The problems with crisis communication became visible following the first hectic phase after the shooting - when a clearer picture of the incident emerged and had to be communicated to all services. "It was difficult to get the right information to the right people on time", the committee said. Information on the progress of he manhunt and the situation at the scene was available within the SGBO structure of the Central Netherlands police, but did not reach other parts of the crisis management on time, completely or in a sufficiently clear manner. This led to misunderstandings, which could cause delays in decision making. 

SGBO refers to police officers trained to deal with large-scale or strange responses. In Utrecht, each police division has staff that form part of the SGBO. 

In crisis communication to citizens, the committee advised always telling citizens how long situations - such as orders to stay indoors - are expected to last and why such orders are necessary. 

Despite these areas of improvement, the evaluation of emergency services' response to the mass shooting was mainly positive. "The crisis organizations acted actively and made understandable choices given the information available at the time, in a situation that was accompanied by threat, urgency and uncertainty."

Deputy police chief Henk van Essen, who commissioned this internal evaluations, is satisfied with the findings. "We - together with partners - do everything we can to prevent incidents with extreme violence. At the same time, we have been working in recent years to further professionalize our response as soon as such violence occurs. That is an ongoing process. This evaluation shows that the investments made - for example the field of education, training and practice - are bearing fruit. We will take these lessons with us as we continue."