FY23 Preparing for Active Shooter Situations (PASS) | O COPS 2023 171542

Opportunity Information: Apply for O COPS 2023 171542

The FY23 Preparing for Active Shooter Situations (PASS) opportunity is a U.S. Department of Justice COPS Office cooperative agreement aimed at strengthening public safety through scenario-based training that helps first responders handle active shooter incidents and other violent threats. It is grounded in the community policing approach, emphasizing partnerships, coordinated problem-solving, and practical strategies that reduce violence and fear while supporting trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve. The program also sits within broader COPS Office priorities such as advancing civil rights and racial equity, improving access to justice, supporting victims, and addressing evolving threats in ways that reinforce legitimacy and community confidence.

PASS is authorized under the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (as amended) and the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (Title I, Part Q), cited at 34 U.S.C. 10381 et seq., and it aligns with the intent of the 2016 POLICE Act provision calling for scenario-based, integrated response courses to counter active shooter threats or terrorism against people or facilities (34 U.S.C. 10381(b)(17)). The FY23 solicitation anticipates a single national award with an award ceiling of up to $12,000,000, contingent on appropriations and any legal or policy requirements that may apply.

A central feature of this solicitation is that it is not designed for local agencies seeking training for themselves; instead, it is designed to fund one provider organization capable of delivering training nationwide at scale. The selected provider must be able to train at least 20,000 individual first responders across the United States during the award period. Training must be available to any U.S. jurisdiction and delivered where the requesting agency needs it, supporting a broad range of disciplines involved in real-world active shooter response. The target audience is intentionally multidisciplinary, including law enforcement, fire, EMS, dispatchers and call-takers, medical personnel, facility security, emergency management, and other relevant partners. The provider is expected to help jurisdictions decide which roles should be in the room to make the training integrated and operationally realistic.

The training content expectations are extensive and practical. On the coordination side, the provider must offer incident command system-focused training that improves how law enforcement, fire, and EMS work together during an active shooter response. On the medical side, the provider must train medical first responders on best practices for treating victims in these incidents. On the communications side, the provider must train emergency call center staff to improve the flow and accuracy of information to field responders. For law enforcement specifically, the provider is expected to deliver instruction on core response capabilities such as solo and team movement, defensive tactics, vehicle stop considerations, entry techniques, methods for evaluating response performance, and post-engagement requirements that matter once a threat is stopped and the scene transitions to rescue, investigation, and stabilization. A recurring theme is that training should occur in controlled environments, include realistic simulations, and be evaluated so performance and curriculum can be improved over time.

A significant portion of PASS is focused on school and campus readiness. The provider must offer a course tailored to school resource officers and school personnel that covers both preparedness and response, including response and recovery planning, coordination with community resources and stakeholders, student engagement and problem-solving, and approaches that work in rural or resource-limited settings. The solicitation requires simulation exercises in school settings to keep training realistic. At least 10 percent of all training under the award must be directed to audiences responsible for responding to incidents in schools and on campuses, and this school-focused training is intended to provide priority access for school resource officers funded through the COPS Office CHP Program.

The solicitation also sets clear expectations for quality and continuous improvement. Training should have defined learning objectives, scenario-based exercise opportunities, and participant evaluations. The provider is expected to evaluate trainings continuously, including both immediate feedback and longer-term follow-up with participating jurisdictions to understand whether the instruction was useful and whether agencies reinforced the skills locally after the class. The provider must also demonstrate an ability to keep course material current by tracking developments in the field, including standards, emerging practices, and after-action reviews from real incidents, then translating those lessons into better training. As part of this improvement cycle, the provider must propose a plan to test tactical responses in controlled conditions and use the results to inform updates.

There are also concrete implementation and compliance requirements. Deliverables should be clearly laid out in the project narrative, and applicants are expected to follow the COPS Office Editorial and Style Manual for identified products. Training deliverables must be compatible with the COPS Office Training Portal, must include virtual training program files developed in coordination with the Portal team through testing and release, and must include certification of the training. The provider should show the ability to obtain certifications through state POST commissions or recognized national certification bodies. Because turnover and skill fade are realities in first responder work, the provider is also expected to supply virtual, online, or other supplemental materials so agencies can refresh and reinforce learning with their multidisciplinary partners between in-person sessions.

Finally, the solicitation draws firm boundaries around what will not be funded. Agencies simply looking to receive active shooter training are out of scope, as are organizations that cannot deliver nationally or cannot meet the requirement to train at least 20,000 responders. Proposals that do not focus squarely on active shooter training are also excluded. In short, PASS is a large-scale, single-award effort to build and sustain nationwide capacity for integrated, scenario-based active shooter response training, with a strong emphasis on cross-discipline coordination, school and campus preparedness, measurable quality, and ongoing evaluation.

• The Department of Justice, Community Oriented Policing Services in the law, justice and legal services sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "FY23 Preparing for Active Shooter Situations (PASS)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 16.710.
• This funding opportunity was created on Feb 21, 2023.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Apr 14, 2023. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $12,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for O COPS 2023 171542

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