Active Shooter Uvalde TX Elementary School

[HCM]

The more I read shit like that, the more I’m waiting for the entire police station to burnt to the ground and guns covering the exits for squirters…

I am surprised (based on previous reporting) that federal agents were the ones that reportedly put her in cuffs.


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Gomez’s claim has been investigated, in short federal marshals did not arrest or handcuff anyone at the scene that day.

The US marshals here wear body cameras on their armor and are very clearly marked. So either Gomez Was the tame by someone from another agency or she made the whole thing up.

She would not be the first witness in this case whose story didn’t check out.

[Wake27]

The inevitable cell phone videos from bystanders should start going viral soon.
That should start filling in some of the info gaps.

I’m surprised they haven’t already.


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[KeithH]

Good points. 911 changed air travel forever. There is no going back to the way it was. Now it’s seen as the cost of doing business if you want to live. It cost extra money, it’s slow and inconvenient and at times even petty but it’s our new normal and it’s accepted as just the way it is. For those Americans 25 years of age and younger they’ve known no other way. If we did it then we can do it now. Let the experts guide us into how we can reasonably secure a school. Give the law some teeth to deal with noncompliance. The public can’t keep bitching about this unless they are prepared for the the very real cost of change. It is going to cost us something.

[DDTSGM]

Not unknown, the TX Tower shooter killed family before going to the tower. Kip Kinkel in Oregon killed family. Probably others.

Whitman also wrote a note/letter asking that his brain be examined to determine why he did it, basically.

[Spartan1980]

We covered this ground after Sandy hook thoroughly. Everyone wanted to do something but nobody could agree on what that was. Another AWB was defeated in the Senate by a few votes. Arming teachers was considered but many school administrators and parents thought is was a bad idea because guns had no place in schools. Same deal with retired vets and LE being used as resource officers. Not going to work because it would require people to have guns on campus.

So all you can do is call 911 and wait for the police to respond bring guns. As we just witnessed, sometimes that's a mighty long wait.

Fixed it for you.

[LHS]

Good points. 911 changed air travel forever. There is no going back to the way it was. Now it’s seen as the cost of doing business if you want to live. It cost extra money, it’s slow and inconvenient and at times even petty but it’s our new normal and it’s accepted as just the way it is. For those Americans 25 years of age and younger they’ve known no other way. If we did it then we can do it now. Let the experts guide us into how we can reasonably secure a school. Give the law some teeth to deal with noncompliance. The public can’t keep bitching about this unless they are prepared for the the very real cost of change. It is going to cost us something.

Chances are such a sea change would result in a cumbersome, burdensome bureaucracy just as ineffective as the TSA.

[DDTSGM]

Re: school resource officers: my kids’ school district has 1 officer that moves around between 3 campuses. He is respected by those who know him, but there is a 1 in 3 chance he will be in the right building at the right time. The buildings are large, so getting to the right spot within those buildings is unlikely before at least some people die.

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.

[BaiHu]

I've seen a lot of hopeless reactions among people, as if this is some conundrum that can't be figured out. Now, I'm not saying that's what you said here but it made me think of it, so I wanted to say this: There's no secret sauce that still needs to be figured out about how to protect school campuses.

If you gave my agency carte-blanche to write security protocols for schools, we could literally give you a security plan in less than a day that would not only secure schools but also maintain some semblance of normalcy so you don't have the psychological impacts of feeling like you're in a prison; that last part being something we worked hard on for new designs in the last decade.

As much as mommy and daddy say they love their kids, the truth of the matter is simple: nobody wants to spend the money, so they stick their head in the sand and say, "Nah, can't happen here". There needs to be a legislative change that mandates XYZ and provides funding for it, which means more taxes. As long as the problem is left to hack-job school security "experts" and school administrators who are trying to squeeze water out of rocks (in terms of funding), nothing will change.

~7 years ago I spent the better part of a year with LE professionals and investors about solving this very problem. We actually came up with a doable solution that uses existing technology and much of the existing "hardening" of egresses already part of the landscape of modern public schools. The initial cost to schools was ~20-50k as a one time fee to outfit schools depending on the size. The yearly upkeep was ~2k if I recall correctly. This is the cost of ~3 students taxpayer money up front and ~12.5% of ONE child's cost of education per year.

Do you know what happened when we tried to present this to a big silicon valley investor with deep ties to LAPD and his school district as a pilot? He said he's already offered a cheaper solution that wasn't as involved or foolproof, but they wouldn't even participate b/c of the perception of profiling people. So 7 years ago I personally was involved in trying to solve this problem nationwide and the consensus was 1) schools care more about perception over reality, and 2) the amount of money in sales force to convince ~1k districts in California, or every district (~100k depending on how you account for private, secondary, elementary, public, etc) in the US would be insurmountable for any company/investor to bother wanting to take it on.

Something that he didn't say, but I think might be true, is all the commie money in California doesn't want to be seen as EVER being connected to pro-police. As a matter of fact, the personal contact that is a tech guy connected to LA has had plenty of hate mail in the press for what he does in conjunction with LAPD, and he's no right winger.

TL/DR: TGS is spot on, it ain't about solving the problem, it's about the politics and money. I think that horse is dust.

[DDTSGM]

Deleted - tools covered earlier in thread

[Borderland]

Chances are such a sea change would result in a cumbersome, burdensome bureaucracy just as ineffective as the TSA.

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.