Editorial: New community policing helpful for school safety

Daily Journal

Following the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School, school safety has been on the minds of parents, educators and local police.

School districts are adopting or improving on safety features and procedures designed to enhance safety in their buildings.

Placing a police officer in each building has been discussed, but police departments don’t have enough staff, and most local school districts don’t have the money to pay the officers. But local agencies aren’t letting that stop them from enhancing their role in school safety.

Since the shootings, local police departments want their officers and deputies to spend more time getting to know the employees and students at the buildings, as well as the schools’ layouts. That way if police are called to an incident at a local school, they’ll have an easier time recognizing who works at the building and who looks out of place. They also will know where the building’s entrances and exits are, and anywhere students or a shooting suspect might try to hide.

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