Our Police Departments are at a disadvantage
What happens when you prepare in every way you can think of, but you’re still missing something vitally important?
“If you don’t think this can happen at your school, you are sadly mistaken. We are shaken, but we are very strong in St. Mary’s.”
James Scott Smith,
Superintendent, St. Mary’s County Schools
On March 20 and just over a month after the tragic Parkland incident, another deadly incident happened at Great Mills High School in Southern Maryland:
The shooter, identified as Austin Wyatt Rollins, 17, was hit after several warnings and later died at a hospital. Two students, ages 16 and 14, were injured and hospitalized.
The quick engagement of St. Mary’s County Deputy Blaine Gaskill (assigned to Great Mills as a school resource officer) prevented additional loss of lives.
Once again the speed of the response proves to be a key component to mitigate the already great damage – Officer Gaskill knew what was going on, he knew the lay of the land and where to go.
Police face enormous challenges when responding to an active shooter or similar threat, most critically:
- Limited intelligence – Officers and Dispatchers…
- …are not equipped with floorplans. It takes longer to find the room where the incident is than getting to the site itself
- …don’t have a way to visually assess the interior of a room
- …are working blind without ANY technical information: Room measurements, structural specifications, number of kids/teachers, room contents (chemistry lab, gas presence, other unusual equipment), etc.
- Limited or no access to cameras
- Useful information is scattered on siloed databases and systems
- Any intelligence is gathered, formatted, and distributed manually
- In the case of an extreme incident (active shooter, bomb threat), Police HQs have to wait until the Officers arrive to have additional intelligence – even then, the information is limited and subject to interpretation
From Sandy Hook to Great Mills
- An Analysis of School Shootings in the U.S.
It seems as though school shootings have become part of our daily lives: children know the school lockdown drill by heart and parents fear sending their kids off to school every morning. It has become embedded in our culture and, every time lives are lost, the issue of school safety and what we can do better comes to the forefront of everyone’s mind...
