Digital Imaging for Safe Schools (And Other Buildings)

The Wednesday, January 25, 2006, issue of the Coeur d'Alene Press has an article headlined Recent incidents prompt area schools to re-evaluate programs by staff writers Linda Ball and Brian Walker. The story's lead is that local school administrators have issued renewed warnings against students bringing weapons, even replicas or pellet guns, to school.

The presence of a weapon and especially a firearm in school, even if it is replica or a pellet gun, can result in law enforcement being summoned to resolve the incident safely. The success of law enforcement's resolution will depend heavily on the responder's knowledge of the facility.

To improve law enforcement's ability to prepare for incidents of threatened or actual violence at schools, the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) published "...a how-to resource guide for public safety practitioners and school administrators to use in developing their own response plans." The 28-page guide is available at the IACP's website and is entitled Digital Imaging for Safe Schools: A Public Safety Response to Critical Incidents. A four-page quick reference version of the study is also available as Quick Reference Guide for Digital Imaging.

Though the resource guides were developed for schools, the principles and practices apply equally well for businesses that are at higher risk of on-scene violence and which may need to request a public safety response to deal with weapons-related problems, hostage take-overs, suspicious packages, and other incidents involving tactical deployment of responders.