Uvalde After Action Report

The SROs are supposed to be those highly trained people we wanted protecting the kids. They are supposed to be the ones with the active shooter training that know to follow protocol to go in (at their risk) and neutralize the shooter. That is literally the job they sign up for and are supposed to be trained to perform. Then there are the SWAT guys that are supposed to be highly trained and go in and put down shooters. They were all there in the opening minutes. Sadly, the aggressive protocol lasted for only one feeble attempt and once the first responders were shot at and one grazed, they suffered a group think mental breakdown that was not overcome by their leadership (also trained in this very activity) and from all appearances, crippled leadership so far that a federal agency not responsible for the job had to do it well after the golden hour of trauma was over.
 
Double Naught Spy said:
The SROs are supposed to be those highly trained people we wanted protecting the kids. They are supposed to be the ones with the active shooter training that know to follow protocol to go in (at their risk) and neutralize the shooter. That is literally the job they sign up for and are supposed to be trained to perform.
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I think this is an optimistic view of what SROs are, and are supposed to be.

SROs are School RESOURCE Officers, not School Protection Officers. Their primary function is keeping peace within the school and providing a positive role model for the kids. When the grammar school in my town had an SRO, he was an older gentleman, considerably overweight, whose only function in the police department other than SRO was to act as the department's photographer. (He also worked part-time in a camera shop at a mall in a nearby city.)

The SRO at Parklands in Florida was there primarily to pencil whip the reports of delinquent behavior. If you have read up at all on the "Broward Solution," what this refers to is a program the County had in place to report felonies as misdemeanors, and to not report misdemeanors as crimes. The purpose of this, which was carried out with the cooperation of the Superintendent (and possibly/probably at his request), was to improve the statistics regarding criminal activity in the school system.

It's nice to think of SROs as the first line of defense against active shooters, but I don't think most school districts or PDs regard them as such.
 
What Police Dept is not facing short staff and budgets?
I'm not knocking SRO s .Quite the contrary. My 10 years as a custodian, I (thankfully) never experienced an active shooter in the school. But yes,the SRO might be a placement for police hires less suitable for rigorous street duty.

SRO s do help "keep the lid on" the population of 500 to 1000 plus hormone fueled young people learning social interaction skills under one roof. Its easier to tip off an SRO about a drug dealing or gangsters or threatening individuals.

Schools themselves tend to want their students to get past "indiscretions" without stained public records.They also avoid dealing with parents who are certain "My kid would not do that" And,every incident requires a lot of paperwork.
I've witnessed teachers use a large book to shield their eyes from seeing student misbehavior.
The schools want "smoothness"...even if it takes denial to maintain it.
A problem is : Today's bullied kid (who may be a cockroach) might get bullied by the school star quarterback.
And its not necessarily the"cockroach" . The "jocks" at my daughter's high school stuffed her in a locker and left her there mostly because she had an "out" gay friend.
When I called in I talked to an assistant Principal who was also a football coach. I got the "boys will be boys" routine. I explained to the coach I taught my Daughter to be Peaceful and tolerant. If she could not be safe in the hallways,I would teach her how to kill people. I gave the example of a nylon rat tail comb being an effective ice pick. A sock full of change will break a skull. I'm sure that got my name on some list, but bullied students left out in the cold arm themselves. And SOMETIMES they ARE crazy.

Stuffing a kid in a locker has to be some form of felony.

An SRO can see that more clearly than a football coach. For my Daughter,being stuffed in a locker was more significant than winning a state football championship.

As a custodian, I found used hypo syringes and liquor "shooters" at the school. When I turned them in to the office, I got "What do you want us to do about it?"
I was finding a lot of airsoft pellets. Speculate on the possibilities.

An SRO can take time to view security video.

FWIW, most schools have several strategically placed video cams and a monitor in the office . Thumbnail display gives an overall picture of activity.

Call me "Captain Obvious" ,but in a crisis , an Officer on that monitor with a radio could be good intel. Maybe even an I-Pad with access to the school feeds would be good.

A head or night custodian will have a Master Key to every room in the building. When a custodian is absent, the Relief Crew comes around and gets at least the basic cleanup. To do that,the Relief Crew has a Master Key that works in any door,any school.

With just a little forethought, the scenario of locked classroom door would be no obstacle (or excuse) for delayed response. The SRO and SWAT could have a key.
 
HiBC said:
With just a little forethought, the scenario of locked classroom door would be no obstacle (or excuse) for delayed response. The SRO and SWAT could have a key.
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Years ago I sat in on a presentation from the Las Vegas Sheriff’s Department about lessons learned from that shooting. One thing the department had going for them in that event was the availability of what they called, “Go Bags”. Those were centrally located bags at each casino that had the access cards and keys needed to get around the buildings. The idea here was this helped alleviate the need to search down one person or another that may be the sole bearer of a certain key. Instead they went to one location, grabbed the Go Bag, and then the team could make itself around the casino. Going into the presentation I didn’t have a full appreciation for the sheer difficulty of navigating a space with which you aren’t familiar and, in the case of Vegas, is in part designed to keep you disoriented so you stay in the casinos spending money (not to mention the sheer size of the casinos).

I’ve also sat in on a presentation from one of the officers that responded to the Washington Naval Yard shooting, and there similar issues were found. In their case it was less an access issue, and more an issue with familiarity with the space and coordinating arriving officers with those on the scene. In that shooting there was surveillance throughout the building, and in time stamps on the videos there were multiple instances where the shooter and officers passed within seconds of each other on stairwells. There actually was a person in the central control room for the surveillance cameras, unfortunately that person was in a state of shock and never relayed relevant information. Like someone mentioned above, you can have equipment and training, but real life doesn’t always hit you the same.

In sitting through both of those presentations and comparing them to what is detailed in the report in the OP, I can only shake my head. I’d argue, even if the officers in those other instances wouldn’t, that the officers in those other instances faced larger hurdles than those seen in Uvalde. And yes plenty of things went wrong in those instances too, but there was a concerted effort to keep working the problem. In Uvalde there was a shutdown. Whether the failures were a function of leadership, individual officer inaction, or a combination of that and others the result was obviously tragic.


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SROs are School RESOURCE Officers, not School Protection Officers.
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From what I can tell, protection is definitely part of their job, at least in TX.

They are fully commissioned LEOs and are issued firearms and body armor.

Here's a job req for a SRO in TX.

https://www.tcole.texas.gov/sites/default/files/StatewideVacancies/School Resource Officer.pdf

First job responsibility:

"Protecting the lives and property of DISTRICT students, personnel, and visitors."

Equipment includes:

"Police vehicle, two-way radio, firearms, vehicular radar, intoxilyzer, handcuffs, body armor, defensive weapons, mobile telephone, and video camera/equipment."
 
From what I can tell, protection is definitely part of their job, at least in TX.

They are fully commissioned LEOs and are issued firearms and body armor.

Here's a job req for a SRO in TX.
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I'd agree what you describe for an SRO is a fine ideal . It may be a description of what is needed. No argument.
What I am about to say is not meant to disrespect ANYONE. No disrespect to SRO's. I'll pre-emptively say there are a number of critical cases where Women Officers rose to the occasion. IIRC, maybe the Washington DC assault on the baseball team. The Ft Hood shootings. The New Life Church.
I know of a couple of Silver Stars earned by Women. IIRC,one was a SGT who took action and busted an ambush and the other was a Medic.

There are Women who will pick up a broom and beat a Grizzly Bear down to a greasy spot if it threatens the kids. There are Women Teachers who did all they could do for the kids by absorbing bullets. I'm not disrespecting the Woman Warrior. And I'm sure Rhonda Rousey could whoop me quick.

Hiring practices have evolved. Today, LEO career opportunities are open to soccer Moms.
There are Officer who are just aging. Not ready to retire but looking forward to it. Dad Bod and all.

These useful People may be assigned as Community Service Officers ,DARE officers,or SRO's.

There are only so many cops to choose from. It would be great if our military could have 80,000 Special Forces and SEALS. Where do you find them? Every Football team could use an Elway or a Manning or that guy who deflates his balls...Whats his name? Where do you buy those?

You are the Chief of Police. You have 63 Officers. What criteria do you use to decide who is assigned 10 SRO positions?

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TunnelRat : Some schools are VERY disorienting! I agree. The person who will know the school building, every breaker panel,valve, closet, roof access hatch, ladder, under floor hatch, key,and lock is the Custodian.

The Custodian even knows where to look for a donut or slice of pizza.

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The schools I worked in had relatively sophisticated alarm systems. I'd arm the system as I went out the door to go home. Except sometimes there would be a fault. I had to figure out what was wrong. One night,it was motion in the rooms. Thats a little spooky. I worked alone at night. The control panel told me the room.
The teacher had hung CD's,DVDs by threads from the ceiling. When the heat came on the airflow would move them . That would trigger the motion sensor. It took a while for me to see it.

The potentially useful point: I'm not an alarm tech. Potentially,the security alarm system could be used to determine which rooms have motion. I'd guess the potential victims would tend to be still and the shooter would be moving.

Door ajar faults can show movement. Between camera,audio, and motion sensors all feeding a monitor and control panel, a lot of info would be available. It can save time. Some schools are a basement and three floors.
While system software may not currently support this use, it can be developed as a responder tool.
 
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shafter said:
Mike Glover of Fieldcraft Survival does an excellent breakdown of the security footage and the tactics used or not used.

Mike is very pro law enforcement as am I so don't take this as a cop bashing post. There are a lot of lessons to be taken from this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_f6lvwVyfE&t=8s
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He gets way too emotional, which isn't a good trait either.

The first time seeing that video, all of those jokers in blue were worthless.
 
Good luck getting a highly trained and tactically proficient officer to accept a position as an SRO. Those guys want to be on the street where the action is. In many departments you can't just assign someone to a specialty position. If I was forced to work in a school every day I would quit and go somewhere else.

SRO's are generally the older and less fit officers who are looking for a couple of easy years before retirement. Often they're great at every aspect of that job except for the one time someone shows up and starts shooting. Law enforcement has so many different facets to it nowadays that the skill and demeanor that allows one to be effective at one area can work against them in others. It's extremely difficult to maintain an edge in a place when nothing ever happens 99.9 percent of the time.
 
The fact remains that it is one of their stated responsibilities and they are trained and paid to do it.

If society is really ok with the idea that there isn't going to be any effective onsite protection to stand up to a school shooter then the money paid for salaries/training/equipment could be spent on something else instead. It makes no sense to pay them, train them, equip them and then to make excuses for them when they don't do their job.
 
If society is really ok with the idea that there isn't going to be any effective onsite protection to stand up to a school shooter then the money paid for salaries/training/equipment could be spent on something else instead. It makes no sense to pay them, train them, equip them and then to make excuses for them when they don't do their job.
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Well said and I agree.

I don't know exactly where the failure was. The attack on Benghazi Embassy comes to mind. Best Warriors were ready,willing and able. Somewhere the command was "Stand Down". Was it the White House? I don't know.

As the movie "13 Hours" depicts, a handful of Warriors defied the stand down orders. Some died. Who failed?

I don't know. I suspect with effective COMMAND, the Uvalde PD could,and would handle one child murdering punk coward. A perfectly good engine won't run if the ignition switch is "Off"
 
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