With many tragedies in recent years around the nation involving violent attacks at school campuses such as the Sandy Hooks Elementary Shooting, Brownwood Police Department and Brownwood ISD are working together to improve campus security across the district.
Both Brownwood ISD and Brownwood Police Department are working on analyzing protocol and procedure through a review process. Currently, BPD officers may be seen on school campuses walking through the halls or on school grounds, familiarizing themselves of the layout of all campuses so that in a real emergency, officers will be more familiar with schools’ layouts and know exactly where on campus they are being called, according to Brownwood PD resource officer Fred Bastardo.
“Our officers take it very seriously; many of them have children enrolled at schools in the district. They take a very special interest in this,” said Bastardo. “I’m very grateful that they (BISD) are allowing us to come into the schools, because I think this is a very, very vital area. There are some schools that I don’t get to go to very often and we have to deal with it every day as if something could occur.”
Assistant Chief of Police James Fuller recently visited Woodland Heights Elementary when his nephew was participating in their Jump Rope for Heart event and found he was not familiar with the front entrance or other changes within the building.
“My kids attended Woodland Heights in the past and I didn’t know how the front entrance area had changed,” said Fuller. “This made me realize that officers responding to a crisis might not know exactly where to go once they were at a campus.”
Bastardo stated that even after the review is complete, the vision is to have officers to conduct unannounced walkthroughs of campuses periodically, to make sure everything is safe and to keep familiar with their layouts. He stated that teachers, in general, are concerned about the schools’ safety issues, and knowing officers care is quite a reassurance to most. Teachers have helped by coming up with ideas that would improve security at their own campuses, such as a fence at Brownwood High near the tennis courts to close off outside access to the school from that side. According to Bastardo, the fence is ordered and will most likely be installed sometime during the summer. Officials also hope that a digital identification check at each campus could be implemented as well, which would enable the school to check IDs electronically, to see if visitors are sex offenders or other types of criminals. Security cameras will be upgraded on several campuses throughout the district according to Bastardo.
In addition to officer familiarity with campuses, the district is working within to improve their response to emergency or crisis situations. Each school is creating a crisis management team which will react to any emergency on their campus and notify the district, which will in turn notify parents of any emergency situation, said Bastardo. There is also a district crisis management team being formed which will include members who would provide medical and mental health responses at campuses when necessary. When an emergency occurs, the district’s public information officer would email, text, or with the use of the district’s website, notify parents of an emergency, Bastardo explained.
He also stated that the school district has to be prepared for crimes which could include incidents such as an active shooter, which was the scenario at a recent multiagency drill at Brownwood High School, but that other crisis situations could happen and the district needs to be prepared.
“We are most concerned with an active shooter situation; however, we can’t be so narrow minded as to think that is the only situation that could occur,” said Bastardo. “We have to be able to multi-task for other types of emergencies, such as a chemical spill, and every campus should be able to react in the same way in a real emergency, as a part of standard protocol.”
Bastardo said that the district and the Brownwood PD learned a lot through the previous drill at the high school.
“It had never been done before. From that high school drill, we now have a template and learned quite a bit, which is good,” said Bastardo.
Programs such as Watch D.O.G.S. and crime stoppers have involved civilian additions to security.
“The Watch D.O.G.S. program is still blossoming. We hope to have two more schools added next year,” said Bastardo. After that, the program could be added to Brownwood Middle School he explained, once a culture has been established within that generation of students who are familiar with their presence.
“You can tell they are a noticeable presence, and have recently been effective spotting a man at the Woodland Heights campus that should not have been there,” said Bastardo.
Campus crime stoppers is currently implemented on the high school campus and according to Bastardo, gives support with extra eyes and ears on campuses.
Typical crimes on BISD campuses include petty theft of items such as earphones, phones, and nice pens along with criminal mischief to vehicles, according to Bastardo. He explained that most of the criminal mischief is caught by surveillance cameras on campus and able to be solved. Brownwood Police Department as well as Brownwood ISD hope that the campuses never have a real crisis situation; however, they plan to be prepared if a situation occurs within the district.
Pictured above (left to right) are BPD officers Corporal Aaron Taylor, Officer Robert Lee and Officer Fred Bastardo during a recent walk through at Brownwood High School.
