Transformational leadership and emergency response to the Las Vegas shooting

How Would Transformational Leadership Affect the Las Vegas Shooting? Emergency leadership represents the pole star of the constantly changing emergency service systems, with relational capital building feasible strategic partnerships that thrive vertically as well as horizontally across systems. Transformational leadership, in this context, stressing innovation while at the same time sticking to robust public service and empathetic values will remain relevant. Concerning the active Vegas shooting of 2017 (Anderson et al., 2017), the transformational leadership approach would potentially alter the situation by concentrating on the required result, proposing a strategy or means to attain this result. Akin to all other active shooting situations, the Vegas shooting also rendered it highly challenging for emergency responders to engage in instantaneous, life-saving decision-making.
Transformational leaders can take a step back from details, viewing the overall organization or system. For the Vegas shooting, efficient transformational leaders can perceive the overall emergency response system, grasping the relationship between response components and their association with the overall environment (Yates, 1999). They can plan the ideal response for goal attainment or situational improvement. Mant (1997) stresses transformational leaders’ contribution, as these leaders can create plans and a vision for resolving problems plaguing organizations.
In the case of transformational leadership within the context of emergency response, leaders may succeed without forging meaningful leader-subordinate relationships, as the more urgent matter here is transforming the situation at hand instead of focusing on transforming the world to adapt to the next millennium (Yates, 1999). In the Vegas shooting’s case, this implies the emergency response would establish a precedent to be followed by others, and event success would prove to be the emergency response, service model. Who would be some of the key personnel and team members involved in the Las Vegas Shooting? The LVMPD (Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department) was among the main organizations to respond to the shooting incident, collaborating closely with on-site security, the Clark County Fire Department, MGM Resorts International, and Live Nation Entertainment (i.e., festival promoters).
The medical division leadership of the event, who did take into consideration a scenario of an active shooting, had set-up a medical tent of the Community Ambulance at Gate 4A. This gate was situated at the event site’s northeastern corner, which provided instant on-site emergency medical service access for ambulance loading/access (Smith, Simpson & Heightman, 2018). The on-site workers of the Community Ambulance largely included well-qualified, well-practiced, long-emergency medical service workers, in addition to some EMTs having a few months’ work experience at such special events.
A second county emergency medical service provider, the AMR (American Medical Response), dispatched all available ambulances to the shooting site. For providing psychological assistance, Community Ambulance immediately requested the aid of MFT, MA, emergency medical service expert psychologist, Nadine Leone, from Las Vegas for emergency incident support. 
Tactical response unit members – Clark County’s disaster coping strategy and ICS (incident command system) planning and training were designed using systematic disaster response philosophy. Members of the tactical response unit encompassed: Communications Operational Liaison Officers Safety Manager and Other Management Supervisors Following this active shooting incident, an ICS was instituted, with Rogers and Jon Klassen, Deputy Fire Chief of Clark County, establishing East Division to Reno Avenue’s south, across Giles Street (Smith, Simpson & Heightman, 2018). But Incident Commanders (ICs) are in charge of guiding response tasks and must undertake primary role responsibility until their delegation among other members. Response unit members ought to supervise incident communications; offering required support for every assigned duty. Nevertheless, the IC must still ensure the effective completion of tactical goals. The more familiar team members will be with their emergency event responsibilities and roles, the more prepared they will be to come up with streamlined incident response. 

Onlooker/crowd care and involvement: Onlookers became the Las Vegas shooting's initial valiant and willing responders.  Based on the ability of the active threat/shooter to enter into the hotel with several bags of firing arms and ammunition, how might leadership be able to increase security measures? What are some of the security measures that can be updated or put in place in an effort to handle a large arsenal of weapons?
In the shooting incident at Las Vegas in 2017, the LVMPD reported finding no less than twenty- three firearms, which included a handgun, in the hotel suite booked in Mr. Paddock’s name. Some were scope- equipped rifles, with the shooter having made use of several rifles in the course of the attack. The above finding leads one to question the security measures currently used and how they may be updated for better detecting and handling a huge weapon arsenal. Firstly, the gun control debate in the United States is typically muddied by individuals contending that all endeavors of all kinds targeted at gun control desire to take away citizens’ guns (or means of defense), which contradicts Amendment II. Also, it has been suggested that the discussion ought to revolve around weapon regulation within private spaces that are publicly accessible (for instance, hotels), with the organization/facility providing the service (the hotel, in this instance) being held accountable for guaranteeing policy compliance. The difficulty in effecting the change here is: the gun rights argument does not pertain to weapons at all. Rather, it relates to what the right represents, namely, cherished freedom and respect for independence. Guns represent a sort of rejection of the political correctness which permeates everything. Thus, the smallest move to restricting lethal weapons appears, to several American citizens, to adversely impact their rights. Another challenge comes from the NRA’s (National Rifle Association’s) great power, attributed to their ability to swing voters in close, tight elections, thereby influencing state-level gun legislation (Alter, Edwards & Elliott, 2017). In Nevada, the state where the Vegas shooting transpired in the year 2017, as many as 38 percent of adult citizens are gun owners, the sale of private guns is legalized, and no state regulation exists to limit magazine capacity. How might adaptive leadership play an integral role in the overall psychodynamic approaches on the new leadership style for this particular incident regarding the Las Vegas shooting? The essence of adaptive leadership is to encourage people to adjust to effectively face the challenges and the changes that unfold in their lives (Northouse, 2016). Some of the common characteristics of adaptive leadership include being able to adapt, following, changing, and practicing new ways. The type of leaders discussed in this category demonstrates that they take the lead in showing those who follow them what they should do and how to do it to their best. It has also been established that adaptive leaders create a connection with all employees. They analyze situations before they act, but they act fast. They succeed in convincing the employees to make the organizational interest a top priority. However, they distinguish between giving direction and micromanaging their staff. Thus, they desist from involving in every detail of the process and allow their staff to work and achieve their set objectives, with little interference (Useem, 2010). In short, adaptive leadership provides an environment for effective learning but allows the employees the space to complete outcomes.
The psychodynamic method entails human behavior and opines that an effective leader is one that meets the needs of their followers, and lends them a listening ear. Such a leader follows group developments closely, inspires staff by giving hope and calming the anxieties of their followers. The latter strategy catalyzes positive action at work (Northouse, 2016, p. 295). It examines the psychological and emotional aspects of the environment at work. It is, therefore, apparent that in an EMS incident such as the shooting in Las Vegas, employing adaptive leadership is helpful because it will facilitate the wide range of respondents with the needed tools to work. It also gives them room to work so that they can attain the goals that have been set. The leader does not have to interfere in the process. Adaptive leadership is, arguably, the preferred leadership approach because it adjusts to the emerging trends, including emergencies, and allows the respondents to work autonomously towards realizing set goals, including neutralizing the attacker and evacuating those injured. It gives room to creativity and eliminates the inconvenient tendency to stick to preset rules and procedures or the persistent interference by a leader. What are some of the adaptive leadership approaches that may need to be taken with the advent of this active threat/shooter opening fire from the 32nd floor of this hotel? Give the number of casualties in the Las Vegas shooting, police, and first responders had to change and adapt their strategies accordingly, with a major focus on preventing measures.
1. Extend the routine planning by adding a pace plan too
Organizers of events, operators of venues, and law enforcement officers should share the burden of event planning, across levels, i.e., local and federal. There should be a carefully done evaluation of the infrastructure of the venue, before the approval of the event, bearing in mind the nationally accepted standards (PoliceOne Staff, 2018). The local government must be willing to walk the talk and stick by the requirements. It should deny permission if there are no sufficient resources to facilitate the occasion of the event.
2. Deploy aerial technology for a response to special events
It is worth noting that even since the tragic incidents, training for active shooters has remained unchanged, which is regarded as okay. However, I believe that it is unfortunate that the situation may remain the same for the response to special events. It seems that the special events response was permanently altered by the Las Vegas shooting. Unfortunately, it also appears to have been overlooked by most of the relevant agencies, just because there are no sufficient resources. Most of the agencies under focus lack drones and other useful equipment that could help in actively and effectively responding to active attackers in a special event. Local law enforcement organizations need to partner with federal agencies that could share the resources because they have them.
Further, local law enforcement organizations should start laying the groundwork with their funding sources to access such resources at the local level (PoliceOne Staff, 2018). A lot of agencies lack the power of the people to facilitate oversight protection for special events. This is the more the reason it is a must for authorities at the local level to start utilizing the available aerial technology, fully.
3. Run integrated active shooter and Mild Cognitive Impairment activity
The October 12th 2017 aftermath saw the agencies across the nation reviewing their special event response and protocols for recovery. A number of the responders of October 1st have publicly expressed the need for officers to conduct active shooter exercises, and have the shooting done overhead. They have also stated the need to have instant and continuous access to peer support and related programs for mental health, to offer them the needed assistance after the special event (PoliceOne Staff, 2018).

References Alter, C., Edwards, H.S. &Elliott, P. (2017). The fight over gun control isn’t really about guns. TIME, October 5th. Anderson, J., Durham, D., Hultin, N., Gusterson, H., & Springwood, C. F. (2017). Gun owners, ethics, and the problem of evil: A response to the Las Vegas shooting. Hau: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, 7(3), 39. Mant, A. (1997). Intelligent leadership. Allen & Unwin, St Leonards. Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice (7th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. PoliceOne Staff, (2018, October 1st). Roundtable: How the Las Vegas shooting changed special event response. Policeone.com. Retrieved from https://www.policeone.com/active-shooter/articles/roundtable-how-the-las-vegas-shooting-changed-special-event-response-NcbCMDR8h57H0IIr/ Smith, J., Simpson, G., & Heightman, A. (2018). EMS response to the mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas. JEMS, 43(4). Useem, M. (2010). Four lessons in adaptive leadership. Harvard business review, 88(11), 86-90. Yates, J. (1999). Leadership in emergency services. Australian Journal of Emergency Management, The, 14(2), 62.