Shooting "victims" -- played by law enforcement personnel -- lie in the hall as four officers search for the bad guy in an active-shooter scenario staged at Colquitt County High School. Those officers are Colquitt County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Chris Thomas, left, the Moultrie Police Department's Sgt. Eric Hill and patrolman James White, and sheriff's deputy J.C. Mustelier.

MOULTRIE, Ga. — In one of those “prepare for the worst and hope for the best” scenarios, law enforcement officers trained to take out bad guys for the second consecutive year at a Colquitt County school.

Several dozen officers with the Colquitt County Sheriff’s Office and Moultrie Police Department took part in active-shooter training, with the sound of gunfire echoing in the hallways at Colquitt County High. The drills, which used actual 9 mm pistol cartridges with a special plastic projectile that left red marks on officers who were hit, was part of the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training that gives officers two full days of instruction and practice.

“The police department and sheriff’s office went through ALERRT Level 1 training Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday,” said Moultrie police Sgt. Michael Cox. “It’s teaching them how to respond to an active shooter, locate and neutralize the threat.”

The 16 hours of training is double the amount of time spent on such training at the police academy, Cox said.

“This is the second year we’ve conducted this training,” he said. “Forty peace officers, between the police department and sheriff’s office, trained over the last four days.”

The officers also got a chance to familiarize themselves with the massive four-story high school facility, which will be helpful if they ever have to respond to a real emergency on the campus.

Additional training is planned for later this year at the county’s middle and junior high campuses, which will give officers the chance to learn the layout of those buildings.

“It’s kind of like the standard way of training” for shooting used across the country, Colquitt County Sheriff Rod Howell said. “If there is a school shooting, everybody (will) be on the same page.”

Howell said that he required all of his patrol officers and school resource officers to have the 16-hour training course. Some of the plains clothes investigators also took part.

It also gives officers with the two agencies the opportunity to get to know their counterparts and build relationships, Howell said.

“It helps build rapport,” he said.

The police department and sheriff’s office are building relationships that will allow for smooth cooperation when officers from different agencies show up at a domestic violence or other call or one backs up the other on a traffic stop.

“If a deputy pulls up and a police officer pulls up at the same time, they hook up and go,” Howell said. “That’s the nature of the game now, to make sure everybody’s watching everybody else’s back.”