focus TION EDUC
PUBLIC SAFETY
Legislative updates unlikely to affect district police operations Conroe ISD police remain focused on campus safety in 2019-20 school year
Safety legislation
The Texas Legislature approved two school security bills in 2019, although neither are expected to affect Conroe ISD police operations.
HOUSE BILL 1387
HOUSE BILL 1143
prevents the regulation of firearm and ammunition storage in vehicles in school parking lots. Firearm storage is currently permitted in school parking lots, and CISD police are trained to respond to both legal and illegal firearm situations.
allows school districts to appoint one or more school marshals per campus . CISD has more than 100 safety staff but does not use school marshals.
Blakelock said district police must act on every reported threat, which can include anything from inappropriate jokes to more serious circumstances. He added that CISD o cers are trained under a state- mandated threat assessment protocol that allows for the immediate start to threat investigations. “We’re going to nd out exactly, ‘Is this a concern, or is this a kid doing something silly?’ And then we’re going to take the action based on that,” he said. “We take every threat seriously, and then we try to rule it out. If we can’t rule it out then we have to take some action.” While some schools across the state could change operations based on two safety-related bills that passed in the Legislature this year, Blakelock said neither is likely to a ect CISD. One, House Bill , allows school districts to increase the number of dedicated school marshals at their campuses. Blakelock said CISD does not use marshals, given its current force of more than o cers and nonpolice prevention control o cers. “The board of trustees made the decision to add additional police positions last year,” he said. “The best t for us, and what they decided to do, is try to increase the police presence on every campus during the school day.” Another piece of legislation signed by Gov. Greg Abbott, HB , protects the rights of licensed handgun owners
BY BEN THOMPSON As Conroe ISD opens the - school year, the district police depart- ment continues to build its resources for security and threat response. CISD police Capt. Matt Blakelock said the department’s increased sta and a new student reporting program have assisted the department over the past year. CISD police responded to more than threats in -, including six on-campus rearm incidents—three of which involved weapons abandoned on or near campuses that were not connected to any schools or students. According to previous reporting by Community Impact Newspaper , threats and three rearm incidents were recorded in -. Blakelock said the annual rise was likely due to student use of the dis- trict’s new Anonymous Alerts digital reporting system and an increasing national focus on safety and aware- ness, rather than a signi cant increase in notable incidents. “Citizens have become more vig- ilant and have started paying more attention to their environments,” he said. “This has led to increased concerns for safety and a much higher reporting rate of things that may not have garnered much attention from students or parents in the past. ... The overwhelming majority of potential threats reported resulted in there not being any credible threat of student or sta safety.”
SOURCES:TEXASLEGISLATURE,CONROE ISDPOLICE DEPARTMENT/COMMUNITY IMPACTNEWSPAPER
CONRO E I S D
IN 2018-19
public safety force School threats
CISD police respond to every threat reported in the district, the vast majority of which were unfounded.
CISD employs more than 100 security personnel and maintains a fleet of patrol vehicles for its officers.
299 submissions through the district’s digital Anonymous Alerts communication system in 2018-19 school year
216 threat-related reports in the district in 2018-19 6 incidents of fire- arms found on cam- pus; two resulting in criminal charges
84 officers in the police department 20 nonpolice prevention control officers
50 vehicle
More than
patrol units
SOURCE:CONROE ISDPOLICE DEPARTMENT/COMMUNITY IMPACTNEWSPAPER
“If there’s rearms on the campus in a vehicle, then they could come into play,” he said. “O cers have a heightened vigilance to be prepared to respond to that as well as they’re highly trained and know and respect the rights of law-abiding citizens if they’re possessing the rearm legally. So I don’t feel like it’s really going to change our daily operations.”
to store their rearms in cars in school district parking lots without regula- tion. Gun owners are still prohibited from carrying weapons inside schools. Blakelock said the department is aware of HB and the risks related to the presence of rearms stored near schools, but again said the legisla- tion would not likely a ect the police department’s current operations.
October 12, 2019 • 7 to 11:30 a.m. • Northshore Park
www.thewoodlandstownship-tx.gov/10fortexas
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The Woodlands edition • September 2019
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