Dallas Police will join with officers from RISD, DISD and Plano ISD for school safety training Friday
Police officers serving at Lake Highlands High and other Richardson ISD schools will receive specialized training Friday as part of a School Violence Joint Exercise with the Dallas Police Department. The “table-top” exercise, with reality-based active shooter discussions, will also involve Dallas ISD and Plano ISD. Expanded practical exercises with area colleges and universities will follow at a later date.
DISD Chief of Police Craig Miller and RISD Head of Security Luther Robinson shared details of the event with Dallas City Council’s Public Safety and Criminal Justice Committee, chaired by Adam McGough.
“The greatest acts of damage occur in the first five minutes,” said Miller. “Our challenge is that five minutes is a very short window.”
School district police officials stressed the importance of communication, both with their DPD brothers-in-arms and with students and parents on the campuses they protect.
“We often hear, ‘See something, say something.’ It needs to go past that to, ‘See something, say something, DO something.” said Miller. “Students are our best resource – they hear stuff.”
Miller lamented that, though extensive camera systems are in place in schools and in neighborhoods surrounding schools, there is no good way to share that data.
“We need to be able to communicate with DPD better,” he said.
Miller didn’t let parents off the hook in the effort to keep schoolchildren safe.
“The kids are the ones who have the best intelligence,” he advised. “Be in your child’s business” and walk up to the SRO (school resource officer) to let him know what’s going on.
“We can only act on what we know about,” Miller said.
Asked about installing panic buttons in the classroom, Miller said officers are investigating a host of options to keep kids safe.
“These are certainly things we look at, along with cameras and peep holes in doors,” said Miller, noting that cost was one of many factors requiring consideration. Miller did note, “Money will never take the place of our kids’ safety.”
He also urged parents and students to upload the City’s iWatch Dallas app to their mobile device, to quickly report suspicious behaviors and activities.
Friday’s training was planned before the school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, but was a recognition that such events can happen anytime, anyplace.
“We need to be forward thinking,” said Miller. “This is the reality of the world we live in today.”
