A police official accused him of not sending officers faster to stop the shooting at the school in Uvalde, Texas, he is the head of the small police force in the school system, a unit usually dedicated to establishing relationships with students and respond to the occasional fight.
Preparing for mass shootings is a small part of what school police officers do, but local experts say the preparation of officers assigned to Texas schools, including the mandatory training of active shooters, provides them with such a solid foundation. like anyone.
“The tactical and conceptual mindset is definitely there in Texas,” said Joe McKenna, deputy superintendent of the Comal School District in Texas and former deputy director of the state school safety center.
A gunman killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School on Tuesday. When students called 911, officers waited more than an hour to enter the classroom after following the gunman into the building. District Police Chief Pete Arredondo decided that officers would have to wait to confront the gunman for the belief that he was locked inside adjoining classrooms and that the children were no longer in danger, they said. say officials on Friday.
“It was a wrong decision,” Steven McCraw, head of the Texas Department of Homeland Security, told a news conference Friday.
A group of Tactical Border Patrol officers would later engage in a shootout with the gunman and kill him, officials said. Arredondo could not be reached immediately for comment on Friday by the AP.
Across the country, police officers working in schools are tasked with monitoring who is coming and going, working to build trust so that students feel comfortable coming to them with problems, teaching anti-substance abuse programs. and occasionally make arrests.
The UValde Consolidated Independent School District Police Department says on its website that its main goal is to “maintain a safe and secure environment for our future leaders to learn and our current leaders to educate while forming partnerships with students, teachers , parents and the community while enforcing the law and reducing fears. “
The training of active shooters was ordered by state legislators in 2019 in response to school shootings. Under state law, school districts must also have plans to respond to active shooters in their emergency response procedures.
Security can sometimes be lax because school officials and officers may not believe a shooting will occur in their building, said Lynelle Sparks, a school police officer in Hillsboro, Texas, and executive director of the school. the Texas School Resource Officers Association.
“It’s always about making sure you’re ready,” he said. “People are relaxing. It happens in all districts. You can’t say no. It happens everywhere. We get to the point: ‘Oh, my God. This is horrible. Security Security Security. ‘ The school year goes by, ‘Oh, why do I have to close my door every day, you know? I would like all teachers to teach behind closed doors. It does not make it a prison system. It’s about saving lives. “
According to the incidental command approach that was widely adopted after 9/11, it is not surprising that the school’s police chief is considered the commander, even after the arrival of officers. from other agencies, McKenna said. The designated person would be considered the commander until he is relieved by a senior officer, but that does not necessarily happen immediately when life-saving efforts continue, he said.
“Obviously, it’s still an ongoing investigation, but it would make sense for a school district police chief to be the commander of the initial incident,” McKenna said.
While many schools across the country host school resource officers who report to their municipal police departments, it is not uncommon, especially in some southern states and large cities, for school districts to have their own police forces, such as Uvalde.
McKenna said his investigation into school policing indicated that training and other factors mattered more than the agency that handled officers.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re in a school police department or an SRO, it’s more about the components of any good officer,” he said.
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