GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ- WLUK) – School resource officers in Waukesha and Oshkosh are being credited with preventing further danger when students brought weapons to schools in separate incidents this week.
While unable to talk specifically about either of those incidents, FOX 11 sat down with Green Bay Police Chief Andrew Smith to talk about the role of school resource officers.
The Green Bay Police Department has 11 armed school resource officers for the 38 public schools in city limits.
“Their job is to do everything they can to keep the kids in that school safe, but they have so much more that they do on a day-to-day basis.”
That includes dealing with truancy, behavior problems, and more serious issues like assault and abuse.
All Green Bay officers were retrained for active shooter situations this spring, but Smith says the school resource officers received additional training right before the school year and a refresher just last month.
“Keeping our kids safe is the thing that keeps me up at night.”.
“Today’s tragic event shows that trained school resource officers can help save lives,” said Vickie Cartwright, the superintendent of the Oshkosh Area School District.
The stabbing and shooting on Tuesday at Oshkosh West happened inside the school resource officer’s office. The first responding officer arrived two minutes after the school resource officer called for help.
“He made immediate entry into the school,” said Chief Dean Smith of the Oshkosh Police Department. “It is believed that he went to the school resource officer’s location to assist.”
Green Bay’s chief says it is protocol for the first officer on the scene to enter the school, a change from previous procedure. Andrew Smith says Green Bay’s officer would have a helmet and ballistic body armor that will stop a rifle round.
“We know that almost all these shootings end the instant the officer comes in contact with the active shooter.”
Smith stressed one of the most important tools resource officers have is the students. Along with the Green Bay Public School District, he wants to remind families CrimeStoppers should be used to report anything suspicious.
“We need to know about that so we can stop it from happening.”
Last year the Chief pitched having one armed police officer at each Green Bay school, with the sole responsibility of trying to prevent school shootings. It would have cost $2.5 million a year, but failed to gain any traction with the school board.
It’s a plan Smith says he still wants to see at schools, in addition to the resource officers.
