POSTED: Monday, December 17, 2012 - 7:15pm
UPDATED: Wednesday, December 19, 2012 - 11:00am
Procedures "In Place" To Avert Trouble
EL PASO — The El Paso ISD Police Department keeps a patrol car highly visible outside, and an armed officer inside all 10 of the city's high schools and all 15 middle schools. Those officers also patrol elementary schools. Since Friday, Chief Victor Araiza has been getting calls from schools about campus safety. He tells them what he tells NewsChannel 9: that with armed security on campus, security cameras and other procedures and drills in place, El Paso ISD is prepared for a crisis. But to do what a campus would have to do to defend a Connecticut-type attack? That's as hard a question in El Paso as any district in America.
Chief Araiza tells Newschannel 9, "We don't necessarily want to have a real quick knee-jerk reaction and assume that if we did this, we'd able to prevent that...and I think we need more time to digest what happened, how it happened, and how we can best absorb that information, and it's not just EPISD, I think it could be law enforcement and districts nationwide, on how to improve school safety."
As for the assault rifle used by the killer, a weapon similar to those used by our combat troops in the Middle East, El Paso School Police are in a now familiar position, trying to preserve the second ammendment right to bear arms, while keeping such weapons out of the wrong hands.
The Chief concludes, "I do agree there should be more stringent background checks, and additional requirements to purchase these kinds of weapons"