8:00am to 3:00pm

WRHSAC, in partnership with Baystate Health, presents
The Reid Technique of Investigative Interviewing and Advanced Interrogation

This multi-day training is designed for law enforcement officers, investigators, prosecutors, intelligence personnel, and other multidisciplinary professionals involved in criminal or counterterrorism investigations. It will strengthen your ability to assess credibility, structure effective interviews, and conduct advanced interrogations. The course is essential for fostering interagency cooperation and improving regional coordination, especially in cases involving criminal activity or potential terrorist connections.

Two sessions will be offered: one in October and one in November. See below for specific dates and registration details.

Cost: Free
Registration: Required (link below).

In this course, you will learn how to:

• Interpret verbal and non-verbal behavior to assess the credibility of statements.

• Structure interviews with open-ended and investigative questions to develop a subject’s statement.

• Use behavior-provoking questions during the interview process.

• Persuade suspects to truthfully disclose their involvement in criminal activity.

• Develop effective interrogation strategies and themes.

• Apply alternative questioning techniques to elicit an initial admission of guilt.

• Manage defiant suspects by overcoming objections and addressing fear of consequences.

We are offering two sessions of this training:

• Tuesday, October 28 – Friday, October 31, 2025. Each day 8:00am to 3:00pm. Holyoke, MA.
• Wednesday, November 12 – Friday, November 14, 2025. Each day 8:00am to 5:00pm, Holyoke, MA.

Please complete the form to register. 

Update September 15, 2025: Both sessions are full. Complete the form below to be placed on the waitlist.

8:00am to 2:00pm

Leading Before, During, and After the Crisis Lessons in Leadership from Chief Daniel Linskey

Tuesday, September 23, Chicopee, MA. 9am to 2pm. 

Chief Daniel Linskey, former Commissioner of the Boston Police Department, brings powerful lessons from a career that spanned street patrols, undercover operations, and top command, culminating in leading the response to the Boston Marathon bombing.

Drawing from decades of experience in law enforcement, the U.S. Marine Corps, and elite leadership training programs, Chief Linskey will share practical strategies for:

• Leading teams with clarity and purpose in high-stakes situations

• Preparing your organization for unthinkable challenges

• Making critical decisions under pressure

• Building resilience and unity during and after a crisis

This engaging presentation blends real-life stories with actionable takeaways you can apply immediately in your own role. Expect moments that will make you laugh, reflect, and be inspired, while adding proven tools to your own “File Cabinet of Leadership.”

This seminar is part of the Western Mass Fire Chiefs Association Leadership Training Series, designed to prepare emerging officers for leadership roles.

Coffee, pastries and light lunch will be provided compliments of Western Mass Fire Chiefs Association.

Thank you for your interest in this seminar. Registration is closed. 

8:00am to 4:00pm

Crush, Impalement, and Entrapment Response for First Responders

First responders, prepare to enhance your skills in managing complex rescue scenarios. Join us for an intensive 8-hour training designed to equip you with the tools, techniques, and confidence to handle incidents involving crush injuries, impalements, and entrapments. Whether facing industrial accidents or terrorism-related incidents, this training will teach you how to apply your everyday tools effectively in high-pressure situations.

Training Highlights:

• In-Depth Instruction: Learn the complexities of crush, impalement, and entrapment situations through structured lectures and real-life case studies. The training will focus on scenarios such as machine entrapment, building collapses, vehicle rammings, and more.
• Hands-On Simulations: Gain experience through performance stations that mirror real-world challenges, including fence and rebar impalements, meat grinder entrapments, and large machinery rescues.
• Skill Building & Best Practices: Understand best practices for safety, medical considerations, command structure, and inter-agency collaboration during large-scale incidents.

The training is free. Registration is required. Please complete the form below to register.

Key Skills You Will Develop:

• Identifying and assessing crush, impalement, and entrapment situations.
• Utilizing everyday tools to extricate victims safely and efficiently.
• Managing medical concerns specific to crush injuries, impalements, and entrapments.

Why Attend? This training is a unique opportunity to advance your skills with expert instruction and simulated rescue scenarios. Take advantage of this valuable experience to prepare for high-stakes situations and bring these life-saving techniques back to your team.

8 hours of CAPCE credits are available for this training.

Update May 13, 2025 – Thank you for your interest in this training. We have a full class and a long waitlist, so we are no longer accepting additional registrations.

Multiple Times

De-Escalation and Crisis Communications Training is designed to provide participants practical tools to de-escalate interpersonal encounters. This course has an emphasis on providing de-escalation tools while prioritizing personal safety.

This training is free. Registration is required. OEMS credits (3) are approved. Please complete the form below.

In this course, learners will learn key concepts related to:

• Problem solving and differentiating between types and stages of crisis.
• The four factors of emotional stress.
• Common indicators and systems associated with persons in crises.
• Verbal steps to de-escalate a situation.

The class is fast paced, with a combination of verbal de-escalation exercises and shared instructor experiences. This course is for anyone who needs practical knowledge on how to address stressful encounters while maintain safety awareness. Recommended audience: First responders, professionals in public-facing roles, educators and staff from elementary schools, high schools, and higher education institutions, personnel from human service agencies, and others who regularly engage with the public, particularly in stressful situations.

Objectives:
By the end of the course, learners will be aware of practical and implementable tools to identify crises and steps associated with verbal de-escalation.

The training is free. It is 3-hours long and is offered at the times and locations listed below. Registration is required. Please complete the form below to register.

All registration will close at noon on Monday, March 3, 2025.

• Wednesday, March 5, 2025, 9am to noon – Agawam – As of Monday 2/24/25 – this session is full. 
• Wednesday, March 5, 2025, 4:30pm to 7:30pm – Pittsfield – As of Friday 2/28/25 this session is full. 
• Thursday, March 6, 2025, 9am to noon – Hadley
• Thursday, March 6, 2025, 2pm to 5pm – Greenfield

Registration is closed. Thank you for your interest in the training.

Multiple Times

Monday June 24 – Registration is closed for this training. Thank you for your interest. 

Hostile threats and attacks are ongoing and can occur in any location. Soft targets such as community events, performances, elections, sporting events, parades, fairs, etc. are particularly vulnerable. These vulnerabilities highlight an urgent need for effective strategies to identify and prevent acts of violence.

Situational Awareness for Safety training  provides knowledge, tools, and techniques to help you maintain situational awareness and stay safe. By the end of the course, participants will know:

● How to systematically observe their environment;

● How to identify people and things that may not look right; and

● How to make more informed decisions and take actions to stay safe

Audience: Fire, EMS, private security, election workers, hospital security, community event staff, sporting event staff, and anyone seeking abilities to identify behavioral indicators of possible threat. This training is not intended for law enforcement. The training is based on skills law enforcement learn in their academies and other required trainings.

The basis for this course is the research and techniques developed as part of the Just Doesn’t Look Right Project (JDLR). The JDLR Project was a United States Department of Defense (DoD) funded research program focused on identifying behavioral indicators of threat.

This training is free. Registration is required. Three sessions will be held throughout western Mass.

• Tuesday, June 25, 12:30pm to 2:30pm, Agawam
• Tuesday, June 25, 5:30pm to 7:30pm, Pittsfield
• Wednesday, June 26 12:30 to 4:30, Hadley (this session provides expanded education and exercise opportunities)
• Wednesday, June 26, 6:00 to 8:00pm, Greenfield

Registration is required. Please complete the following form to register.

Monday June 24 Update – Registration is closed.

8:00am to 2:00pm

The Western Region Homeland Security Advisory Council and Western Mass Fire Chiefs Association are proud to present Extreme Ownership Leadership Training by ©Echelon Front, LLC. An intensive leadership training program designed to equip you with the tools and mindset to lead effectively in any situation.

Why Extreme Ownership?

All your problems are leadership problems, and Extreme Ownership (©Echelon Front, LLC) is the solution. Learn how to take ownership of your actions, decisions, and outcomes to lead and win in both business and life.

Key Topics Include:

Laws of Combat: Implement strategies for optimal team performance, including cover and move, simple, prioritize and execute, and decentralized command.

Extreme Ownership: Dive deep into the concept of leadership as the single most important factor in success. Understand that there are no bad teams, only bad leaders.

Mindset: Develop a default aggressive mindset and learn techniques for controlling your ego to make better decisions.

Sustaining Victory: Master leading up and down the chain of command, empower your subordinates, make decisive choices in uncertain situations, and embrace discipline for freedom.

Practical Application: Apply your newfound knowledge and beliefs about leadership to real-world scenarios.

Date and Time:

Friday, May 10, 2024. 8:00am to 2:00pm

Location:

Hadley Senior Center
46 Middle St, Hadley, MA 01035

Audience:

This training is open to fire officers in the four counties of western Massachusetts. We kindly request that each sign-up be done in pairs. We encourage the pairing of two fire officers from any rank in each department. This approach fosters collaboration and diverse perspectives, enhancing the learning experience for all participants.

Registration is required. Update Tuesday, May 7, 2024. The training and waitlist are full. Thank you for your interest. 

8:30am to 4:30pm

Monday, May 13, 2024
The Minds, Lives and Motivations of Mass Attackers

A Conference with renowned expert Dr. Peter Langman

Following a school shooting or ideological attack, we often wonder if there were warning signs that we missed. We think we know what a typical shooter looks like, but do we really? Is there even such a thing as a “typical” shooter?

Who are these people, and what are the psychological dynamics driving their behavior? What is going on behind the scenes prior to an attack? What factors mitigate risks, and when do they deserve a closer look? What are the psychological barriers to reporting or investigating suspicious behaviors?

“The truth is that there is no profile. School shooters are not all bullied, they are not all loners, and they are not all obsessed with violent video games or firearms. Sometimes they commit random attacks against strangers, sometimes they carry out narrowly focused attacks against specific people, and sometimes there are both random and targeted victims.”  –Dr. Peter Langman, PhD.

Though mass shooters are not all cut from the same cloth, over decades of research Dr. Langman has uncovered persistent patterns in the types of people who commit these attacks. The Western Region Homeland Security Advisory Council is bringing Dr. Langman, a leading expert on this topic and author of the books Why Kids Kill (2009), School Shooters (2015), and Warning Signs (2021), to share his findings about perpetrators of mass violence: who they are, what drives them, and what warning signs to look for.

Dr. Langman will use real case studies to illustrate pathways to violence, protective factors, and reasons that suspicious behaviors are often overlooked. He will share tips on “insider references” to look out for (for example, “1488” scribbled on a student’s notebook is a bright red flag) and how to assess threats. The full day conference will focus on school shooters in the morning and broaden to other types of perpetrators in the afternoon. There will also be ample opportunity for Q&A.

The conference is free of charge and open to the public, and is particularly geared to those working in law enforcement, K-12 schools, higher education, hospitals, public health, mental health, first responders, and other public-facing disciplines.

Registration is required. Click here to register. Participants are encouraged to order lunch through the registration form or bring their own lunch to minimize interruptions to the content.

Please be advised that this conference will address sensitive topics, including some graphic language and details.

8:30am to 5:30pm

WRHSAC is offering a session of Pre-Hospital Trauma Life Support Training (PHTLS) at Easthampton Fire Department on Tuesday and Wednesday, April 23 and 24, 2024.

PHTLS is the premier pre-hospital trauma education developed in cooperation with the American College of Surgeons to promote critical thinking in addressing multi-system trauma and provide the latest evidence-based treatment practices. The program will strengthen the EMS providers’ assessment skills and techniques for managing patients in distress. The program is based on a pre-hospital trauma care philosophy, stressing the treatment of the multi-system trauma patient as a unique entity with specific needs and has shown to improve the quality of trauma care in all patients and also decrease mortality.

This is a two-day, sixteen hour training for first responders who are EMT-B through EMT-P trained.

The training is free. OEMS credits will be provided.

Registration is required.

Thank you for your interest in the training. As of Tuesday, March 26, 2024 the training is full and the waitlist is at capacity. 

WRHSAC’s series of Active Attack Integrated Response Trainings continues with a session on Wednesday and Thursday, April 17 and 18, 2024, in Holyoke.

This 16-hour, performance-level, direct-delivery course aims to enhance collaboration among law enforcement, fire, dispatch, and emergency medical services (EMS) during active attack/shooter events. It introduces a model framework for Rescue Task Force (RTF) response.

Focused on elevating the safety and survivability of active attack/shooter event victims, the training also strives to enhance the efficiency, coordination, and resource integration among law enforcement, fire, dispatch, and EMS responders. Aligned with NFPA 3000, the Standard for an Active Shooter/Hostile Event Response (ASHER) program, this training prioritizes adherence to established guidelines.

The training is free. Application is required. Space is limited so apply soon!
The training is appropriate for law enforcement, fire and EMS.

8:00am to 5:00pm

WRHSAC is offering four sessions of EMS Pediatric Acute Care training. Boston Medical Center’s Community Outreach Mobile Education Team’s (COMET) will facilitate the training. The training aims to bridge gaps within pediatric acute care by providing in-situ simulated training.

Each session is four hours long. Two sessions will be held on each of the following days. The first two sessions are on Thursday, February 1, 2024 in Holyoke. The final two sessions are on Friday, February 2, in Pittsfield. Session start times are 8:00am and 1:00pm. The trainings are open and appropriate for EMS. You need to be a licensed EMS to be an active participant. 

The training will prepare EMS for pediatric emergencies in all types of situations including trauma sustained during active shooter/hostile incidents and other emergencies. The training focuses not only on medical skills but also critical thinking and assessment required in complex response. Multiple simulations of a variety of incidents will be conducted in each day.

The training offers two levels of participation, first as an active player in a scenario and secondly as observer of scenarios and their subsequent hot washes. As an active participant you will role play in at least one of the day’s simulations. Each simulation will include 4 to 6 role players. When you aren’t a role player in a simulation, you will be an observer and can participate in the hot washes and ask questions. Remote observation via zoom is also offered for the Pittsfield sessions. As a remote observer you will have a bird’s eye view of the scenarios and hot washes. You will also have the opportunity to ask questions during the hot wash.

The training is free. Registration is required.

Registration for this training is now closed.