The Pulaski County Sheriff Jeff Richwine wants to work with the two county schools in order to gain access to security cameras in case of an emergency.
Richwine told the commissioners last week that he attended workshop on school safety in La Porte the previous week where he learned of a way that can help police in the matter of a school shooting. He spoke of an incident in Richmond.
“A kid attempted to go in and shoot the school and they had cameras. The principal locked herself in her office and she could see this kid the whole time he was in the school. They went into a lockdown and she was able to tell the police exactly where he was and they got him isolated in this stairwell. He was sitting there waiting for police or somebody to walk into that stairwell so he could start shooting. She was able to avert that by telling dispatch and then dispatch radioed to police to let them know,” explained Richwine.
Richwine wants to take security a step further in Pulaski County and gain direct access to all of the cameras in both schools so police can assess the situation and put tactical training into operation.
“What I would like to do is put up some extra monitors in the third station in the dispatch area. I don’t think it’s going to cost the county anything. I can do it all with Commissary money. That way if we have an incident at the school a dispatcher could walk right across the room, sit down at that thing and be able to dispatch people and see what’s going on in the school.”
He said he will be working with both schools and the IT company to get that in place.
