With the start of the school year only a few weeks away, safety is the top priority for school police officers.
It’s a scenario that police hope they never have to respond to. But, Miami-Dade Public Schools Police officers are prepared.
“Our main mission here when it comes to active shooters in our schools is simple, it’s stop the killing, stop the dying and the rapid evacuation of those that may be wounded,” said Edwin Lopez, Miami-Dade Schools Police Department Chief.
That is what they trained for during a realistic active shooter drill at Hialeah High School, Wednesday.
“Here we want to challenge us as much as possible, so we picked complex high schools, older high schools that have been renovated with challenging classrooms,” Lopez said. “We try to expose our officers to the most dynamic situations possible to really enhance their ability to address these threats.”
Another drill was held at Miami Beach High, Tuesday and last month officers trained at Coral Gables High.
Lopez had this message:
“We’re going inward, we’re going quickly, aggressively and we’re taking this very serious.”
“I’m glad we were able to observe, I’m glad we were able to participate in this exercise, and could only encourage even more training, more collaboration,” said Mayor of Hialeah Esteban Bovo. “I think at the end of the day it’s going to save lives.”
While MDPS police are doing these drills ahead of the new school year, this is something they will be doing year-round.
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