The LaGrange Police Department will host a public training event Tuesday to help civilians if they one day find themselves in the middle of an active shooter event.

The training is called C.R.A.S.E. Training, or Civilian Response to Active Shooter Event, and will take place from 6-8 p.m. at the LaGrange Police Department Training Center located at 376 Aerotron Parkway. The training is based on the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training program, according to Sr. Police Officer Jim Davison, who works with the LPD’s Community Outreach Unit.

“We teach people that it is mainly situational awareness at the end of the day when you sum it up,” Davison said. “Pay and attention and react to what’s going on around you in your world.”

Davison said all too often people assume that there’s nothing going on, instead of reacting to the sounds around them. He said oftentimes gunshots are assumed to be fireworks, or people think they misheard, instead of reacting.

“The big problem is denial. How many times a year should we hear fireworks?” Davison said. “If you hear something that sounds like that, and it’s not the Fourth of July or New Year’s Eve, react to it. Do something.”

With mass shootings all over the news, Davison said the department has had a lot of requests for the training from businesses and churches over the last few years. He said they talk to people about hiring practices, since about half the time victims of mass shooters are shot or killed by someone they know.

The department also recommends the see something, say something approach.

“If we see something, we need to say something,” Davison said. “I can always tell you I’m sorry. I can apologize if I thought you were up to something else that you’re not up to and at the end of the day we all go home.”

Davison said the biggest thing is that many of the people who are involved in a mass shooting survive, and that’s the important thing. He said the point of the training isn’t to start paranoia, but to help people be more attentive to what’s happening around them.

“If you look at the total number of people that are killed or injured in these events, there are more people that are injured and survive,” Davison said. “That’s what we try to teach people and try to instill is that you can survive.”