Active Shooter Uvalde TX Elementary School

[AMC]

Here's an idea - how about having beat cops get out of their units and get into the schools when they have a chance? This is from something I wrote on the subject:

While the remainder of this handout will deal with actual response tactics, obviously preventing an active shooter situation from occurring is the best course of action for those we serve. Educating the public about the active shooter threat must be a significant component of intervention strategy.

Educators, classmates, co-workers, supervisors, or anyone in contact with other persons on a daily basis should be made aware of the indicators listed above and notify appropriate personnel when they become concerned that an individual has the potential for violence. Several studies of active shooter events have noted that in many events, especially school shootings, there was some indication of threat. In several cases, alertness of behalf of school staff or co-workers prevented an active shooter event.

The patrol officer can play a significant role in prevention beyond education. The frequent presence of uniformed patrol officers at random times may very well deter an attack. In addition to prevention, increased presence in a target location ups the likelihood that an officer will be present when an attack begins. Officers must be proactive in identifying potential targets of an active shooter, becoming familiar with the facility, and maintaining a visible presence at those locations.

Officer initiated interaction with the public we serve is something that is often talked about, yet rarely practiced by most officers. Officers should make a concerted effort to become 'one' with the people in their patrol area. Officers should feel comfortable asking in any contact 'have you seen anyone acting suspiciously?' or 'is there anything going on you think I need to know about?'

Active shooter incidents are very often the work of a disaffected person; however, a citizen observing surveillance of the target location may identify a terrorist event during the planning process. Being more accessible to the public increases the likelihood that citizens will report such observations to police.

Preplanning: 'It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark' is a good statement to keep in mind regarding preplanning for every phase of police work, especially when responding to high-risk events such as an active shooter. As mentioned above, preplanning for an active shooter event involves becoming familiar with locations in your jurisdiction that could be potential targets.

Survey the locations with the intention of becoming familiar with the safest response routes, potential entry or breach points, as well as interior lay out and hiding places. Ask the staff how they would get in if the most obvious entry points were blocked........

How many beat officers in your area have even toured the school(s) on their beat?

How many schools would make a work-space available for 'their' officer(s) to work reports?

How many officers have ever pulled up next to the playground, got out on portable and BS'ed with the kids, or took part in an activity?

Sure, sometimes it is call to call, but when it isn't these are possibilities.

In answer to your questions:
1. Several over the years.
2. Nor one. No chance. Never gonna happen.
3. Most of them.

As several posters have alluded to, the open hostility of the educational establishment to Law Enforcement is a major barrier to fixing this problem. And this hostility is irrational, not based on any actual incidents or problems, therefore it's resistant to change. My jurisdiction eliminated the SRO position, at the insistence of the School District. They are very reluctant to even allow officers on campus in the event of emergencies or actual crimes. They prefer staff and students make such reports after school at a police facility, so that students of color and LGBTQ+ students are not traumatized by seeing a police officer. That's not a joke....thats their actual position. These folks are irrational and believe their woke positions shield them from violence. Unfortunately the news out of Uvalde plays into their belief that there's no use calling the cops in an emergency.

[Borderland]

https://thepostmillennial.com/breaki...deral-marshals

Jesus, that's almost unbelievable. That's like the fire dept watching a building burn when they know for a fact people are trapped in there and going to die.

[oakdalecurtis]

Or we could just try what’s already proven to work…

https://crimeresearch.org/2019/05/ma...-school-hours/

[UNM1136]

The fed could create a new department just to secure schools. They could call it the Education Security Administration. TGS could head it up but he has to promise to be nice.

Based on what I seen, ain't gonna happen. We need brave truth tellers...

pat

[Borderland]

^^^^
Drove 40 miles, argued with the LE, got arrested, released and still retrieved her own kids from the school....

BORTAC BP drove 40 miles, was told to stand down for 30 minutes, knew it was still an active shooter, disobeyed command by saying the equivalent of "let's roll" and ended the carnage.

Yea, i'm going to go ahead and say this was a complete clusterfuck of epic proportions and there should be mass terminations (at a minimum) of many, many people involved.

I'm voting for Mike Morath (commissioner of education in TX) to be the first one unemployed. Might send a message to some administrators. This yahoo had no experience as an administrator in a public school. His claim to fame is Bachelor of Business Administration degree and some volunteer work in other countries. He obviously had some political connections.

https://tea.texas.gov/about-tea/lead...ners-biography

[CraigS]

I just reread the thread. I learned a lot from people here who have been involved in trying to come up w/ solutions for 'hardening' the school and possibly have some employees armed in one way or another. It is very disheartening to read of how so many in the US think that a 'gun inside a school' is a negative even though a gun inside a school is what finally ended this horror. But back to the local cops. A few of them showed up in what is actually a fairly impressive response time. Then they (I pulled back what I originally typed and replaced it with 'they') heard some shots near them and were scared, so they left and waited for others to arrive and do their job for them. Starting w/ the chief who 'classified' the situation incorrectly, and continueing w/ every one of the 20 in the hallway, and including any others who did nothing but parade around outside looking all tactical cool, need to be gone. And everything possible should be done so they can never work in law enforcement again, anywhere. I don't want any dead or injured cops, but that door should have been opened w/ a shotgun ( or whatever some of you w/ experience recommend would be better tool) followed by as many cops as are there charging in and taking out the shooter. Some may be injured or killed. But how many kids lives might be saved? How many were shot but not killed immediately, but bled out while waiting for help? Today all I can hope for is that Gov Abbott fires them all and replaced them w/ some National Guard personnel for as long as it takes to replace them permanently. I would much prefer to be honoring a cop or cops as heros and, if some died, be providing his widow w/ $100,000 per year for the rest of her life and free education in a state college for their kids.

[UNM1136]

I just reread the thread. I learned a lot from people here who have been involved in trying to come up w/ solutions for 'hardening' the school and possibly have some employees armed in one way or another. It is very disheartening to read of how so many in the US think that a 'gun inside a school' is a negative even though a gun inside a school is what finally ended this horror. But back to the local cops. A few of them showed up in what is actually a fairly impressive response time. Then they (I pulled back what I originally typed and replaced it with 'they') heard some shots near them and were scared, so they left and waited for others to arrive and do their job for them. Starting w/ the chief who 'classified' the situation incorrectly, and continueing w/ every one of the 20 in the hallway, and including any others who did nothing but parade around outside looking all tactical cool, need to be gone. And everything possible should be done so they can never work in law enforcement again, anywhere. I don't want any dead or injured cops, but that door should have been opened w/ a shotgun ( or whatever some of you w/ experience recommend would be better tool) followed by as many cops as are there charging in and taking out the shooter. Some may be injured or killed. But how many kids lives might be saved? How many were shot but not killed immediately, but bled out while waiting for help? Today all I can hope for is that Gov Abbott fires them all and replaced them w/ some National Guard personnel for as long as it takes to replace them permanently. I would much prefer to be honoring a cop or cops as heros and, if some died, be providing his widow w/ $100,000 per year for the rest of her life and free education in a state college for their kids.

Some of us believe that a lot. They give us body armor, and guns and expect us to take decisions that may well result in the loss of life. What we do and the decisions we take are hard; we have to live with them, right or wrong. As judged by others after the fact. Would not make another choice, were it mine.

Go in. Sort things out. Solve the problem...

pat

[TC215]

Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, told "Fox News Live" Saturday that while on the ground in Uvalde, he spoke to a wounded officer who told him police response units were "scrambling" to find a tool to open the school door to get to the gunman on Tuesday.

He learned that the locked steel door only opened outward, "not inward," making it more difficult to break down.

https://www.foxnews.com/live-news/uv...chool-shooting

[JodyH]

Jesus, that's almost unbelievable. That's like the fire dept watching a building burn when they know for a fact people are trapped in there and going to die.

Perfect analogy.
Whole lot of cool go fast gear standing perimeter while there were still kids inside non involved rooms to be evacuated and a active shooter inside still shooting.

Clusterfuck.

Maybe we need that British SAS and the Israeli IDPA vest guy from the Nairobi Westgate mall terrorist event to show them how it's done.

Keep penetrating.
Evac innocents as they are located.
Corner and terminate the threats as they are located.
Repeat until until the job is done.

[JodyH]

He obviously had some political connections.

The whole local response reeks of typical incompetent south Texas Dem politics.
The one thing I hate about that area is the Mexico style corruption that infests local politics.
Every city and county job is filled through nepotism and favoritism... including every single LE position from dispatch and dog catcher to Sheriff and Chief.
This is what you get... incompetence from top to bottom.

I did expect better from the Texas DPS Troopers, they usually do what's right.

The only ones in this whole shitshow that appear to have stepped up is the USBP (as expected after spending a lot of time on the range with many of them).