Greene DA announces ’emergency response team’ for school shootings
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Greene County District Attorney David Russo announced Thursday a new emergency response team to handle the threat of school shootings.
According to a press release, the team will be trained for response and “tactical entry” in the event of a shooting in one of Greene County’s school districts.
“The single common factor for the prevention of loss of life that has occurred at Uvalde, Parkland, Fla., Columbine and other school shootings is response time and the availability of a trained emergency response team to immediately engage an active shooter at the incident location,” Russo said in the release.
Russo said the team will be comprised of county detectives and local law enforcement. They will be on call for an immediate response to an active school shooting.
“The selected individuals will be specifically trained in dynamic entry, threshold entry, active shooter location and will monitor social media for prevention of any potential incidents,” Russo said in the release.
Once the response team is established, there will be a hotline directly to Russo’s office to report any issues.
Russo said they are also working with school districts to create response plans, and are developing evacuation plans for each school.
“We, as law enforcement, have a duty to provide a safe environment for our children to be educated in, and directly and immediately engage any threat to their safety,” Russo said.