sa国际传媒官网网页入口

When 13-year-old Bennie Hargrove was shot and killed at Washington Middle School on the third day of school in 2021, sa国际传媒官网网页入口 Public Schools police were already on campus and responded immediately.

But in the direct aftermath of the shooting, which investigators later said was committed by another eighth-grader who鈥檇 brought his father鈥檚 gun from home, law enforcement needed to make sure there wasn鈥檛 another shooter at the school.

So district police used a relatively new system, designed to access technology built into every school and managed at a command center miles away, to remotely help check the school grounds, send the entire campus into lockdown and alert officers to rush to the school.

鈥淭his is the nerve center,鈥� Capital Master Plan Executive Director Kizito Wijenje told the Journal during a tour of the roughly $4.3 million command center, completed in 2020 and funded largely by local mill levy dollars.

Whether an alarm is tripped after hours, or someone swipes a badge when they shouldn鈥檛 be at school, or a teacher sounds the alarm with one of the new lanyard cards the district aims to implement in all schools this year that are designed to summon responders in an emergency, the APS command center knows about it.

And that intel comes in real time. For example, if there鈥檚 an intruder in a school, authorities at the command center can track their movements and, monitoring from live feeds of school cameras, help police pinpoint exactly where they are as they move throughout the building at any time.

The star of the show is the APS dispatch center, a dark room lit by colorful strip lights, dozens of computer monitors and a wall of about a half-dozen more screens displaying live feeds cutting from different cameras throughout the district鈥檚 schools and other buildings.

That dispatch center is manned across multiple shifts shared by eight dispatchers, Dispatch Supervisor Shashanna Gonzalez said, and there鈥檚 never a lull in APS keeping tabs on its schools and buildings.

鈥淐hristmas Day, New Year鈥檚 Day, Thanksgiving 鈥� you name it, somebody has to be here,鈥� APS Chief of Police Steve Gallegos said.

In district sites like bus stations, APS also sometimes employs radar systems that detect motion when there shouldn鈥檛 be any to help keep people from stealing expensive property.

鈥淲e wouldn鈥檛 be able to do it without this command center,鈥� Wijenje said. 鈥淲e have to have one nerve center that can, at the press of a button: give access to SWAT; give access to the superintendent and the leadership; and keep the parents of this district knowing 鈥� we鈥檙e doing the most that we can do with the resources we have.鈥�

The command center also serves as a headquarters for APS police to brief and temporarily store evidence, Gallegos said.

And in the event of an emergency, sa国际传媒官网网页入口 police can also remotely access APS cameras, although there have been some technical glitches with that. But for the most part, Alarm, Radio and Surveillance Supervisor Michael O鈥機onnor said, those kinks have been worked out.

On top of just adding layer upon layer of safeguards in case of an emergency, Gallegos said the system has also cut down on vandalism and theft in schools or other district sites 鈥� to include helping prevent thieves from cutting catalytic converters off APS buses, which Wijenje noted can create about $25,000 in costs for replacing the part and repairing the damage.

The center鈥檚 also handy in the mundane, day-to-day operations of the state鈥檚 largest district. For example, when a pipe bursts and leaks water in a school, the motion detection systems that feed into the center help the district find out more quickly than in years past, when in the past a burst pipe could have wreaked hundreds of thousands of dollars of havoc over a long break before school staff came back and discovered the issue.

鈥淲e鈥檝e had officers respond to schools in December and January, and there鈥檚 busted pipes and water flowing. And that鈥檚 how we get the notification to get the plumbers out there to 鈥� minimize, as much as we can, the damage,鈥� Gallegos said.

Of course, no system is without its flaws, and right now, manpower is among APS police鈥檚 biggest.

To cover more than 140 schools, there are currently about 50 officers in the APS police department 鈥� leaving almost a dozen vacancies, district spokesman Martin Salazar said. There are even fewer campus security aides, around 56.

Because district police are short-staffed, Gallegos said APS has 鈥渞eally relied heavily on technology,鈥� which according to Wijenje in recent years has amounted to at least $12 million districtwide for cameras, alarms and card access systems.

Wijenje did note that those camera and other monitoring systems are not for surveilling students and staff as they go about their days, but rather for 鈥渓ife, health and safety, and also for tangible safety of equipment and facilities that are taxpayer paid.鈥�

But that鈥檚 not to say the district isn鈥檛 always watching.

鈥淲e want the bad guys to know that 鈥� you鈥檙e taking (your) chances,鈥� Gallegos said.