State police issue report on Sandy Hook shooting response

Connecticut State Police released a report Friday reviewing their response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
The “after-action report” is a 74-page analysis of their response that includes recommendations for similar scenarios.
The report says that overall, state police responded “effectively” to the scene, and had they not, “the number of victims could have been higher.”
The report notes that complications did result from emergency dispatchers being occupied with giving troopers directions to the school. Further complications resulted from confusion about which rooms in the school had already been searched and deemed safe.
In addition, the report says that since only one trooper and two volunteer firefighters guarded the entrance, issues resulted over parking and keeping reporters and families back. There was no clear staging area for ambulances.
Families complained in the report that state troopers were slow to give them information, even after national media began reporting multiple fatalities.

"It seemed as though the world knew what was going on and they were the last to find out," the report says.
The report also says that a significant amount of unnecessary personnel went in to the school, resulting in the contamination of evidence, including bullet casings and glass shards.
Finally, cellphones, laptops, and two-way radios simply didn't work because of limited data coverage.
The report says state police did most things right, however, especially by assigning an individual trooper to each victim's family.
News 12 Connecticut has learned that state police rules say after-action reports are supposed to be issued within a week, though this report took more than five years to complete.
Troopers have not explained why the process took so long.