Chicago’s airport police swear an oath to serve and protect, and they go through the same training as other Chicago police officers to perform their duties.

But in the event of an active shooter, the nearly 300 police patrolling Chicago’s Midway and O’Hare airports have no guns to defend against the attack and are instead instructed to “run and hide,” CNN reports.

The news site points to internal documents obtained through department sources that advise the unarmed officers “If evacuation is not possible: hide.”

“We must also ensure that unarmed security personnel … do not attempt to become part of the response,” one document read.

“If evacuation is not possible, you should find a place to hide where the active shooter is less likely to find you,” a training video states. “Block entry to your hiding place and lock the door.”

The aviation police are the primary law enforcement presence at the airports, and have been unarmed since the 1990s, but are assisted by officers from the Chicago Police Department who are armed.

The aviation officers are all sworn law enforcement officers through the state of Illinois, and they undergo the exact same training as Chicago police. Many are military or law enforcement veterans, or work in other police departments, CNN reports.

Airport police who spoke with CNN anonymously said they feel like a target without a weapon.

“We’re nothing but casualties if you tell us to run and hide. And how can the public look at us if they see police officers running and hiding?” an unidentified officer said. “That goes against the very oath we were sworn to that we took.”

The airport police union, Service Employees International Union Local 73, would rather lose officers as members and have them armed than to leave them vulnerable, secretary Matt Brandon told CNN, but the union has been unable to persuade the department to change the policy.

“And that’s amazing these men and women are sent to the Chicago police academy, and trained as police officers, and being a former police officer, I know your first instinct is to go to the problem — not run away from the problem,” he said. “They are the last resort to the airfield in many cases, and to have them unarmed is just, I think, it’s ludicrous.”

Miami security expert Wayne Black agreed with Brandon wholeheartedly.

“I’ve never heard of anything so crazy,” Black said. “I mean, the concept in a post-9/11 world of having sworn law enforcement officers unarmed at an airport, not being able to take direct action — I don’t know what they are thinking.”

“Who in their right mind would have sworn law enforcement officers wearing a sign on their back that says police and wearing a badge on their chest and being unarmed?” he asked.

CNN tried to relay that question to aviation police chief Richard Edgeworth, but he didn’t seem very interested in discussing the issue.

He scampered away from the reporter with a “no comment” when approached outside his office.

Department communications director Owen Kilmer later said “we think the strategy in place is working.”