Texas state police undertake extra aggressive technique on college shootings By Reuters

By Brendan O’Brien

(Reuters) -Texas state police have adopted a extra aggressive technique for responding to high school shootings after scathing criticism of legislation enforcement’s dealing with of a bloodbath in Uvalde that killed 19 kids and two lecturers.

The Texas Division of Public Security (DPS) confirmed in an electronic mail on Wednesday that it had made modifications within the protocol for its officers responding to a mass capturing such because the Could 24 bloodbath in Uvalde, a small city in Texas Hill Nation, about 80 miles (130 km) west of San Antonio.

In an emailed assertion, DPS additionally stated it had referred 5 of its officers to the state inspector common for investigation into their actions throughout the capturing at Robb Elementary College. Two have already been suspended with pay.

The DPS, which incorporates the Texas Rangers, created an inside committee in July to analyze how its officers responded. It referred the 5 officers to the state inspector common primarily based on that investigation.

Additionally in July, DPS Director Steven McCraw despatched an electronic mail outlining modifications within the protocol for DPS officers responding to a mass capturing, the division stated on Wednesday. DPS despatched a replica of the e-mail to Reuters.

“Officers responding to an energetic shooter at a faculty will likely be licensed to beat any delay to neutralizing an attacker,” McCraw wrote within the July electronic mail. “When a topic fires a weapon at a faculty he stays an energetic shooter till he’s neutralized and isn’t to be handled as a ‘barricaded topic.'”

Within the wake of the capturing, criticism of legislation enforcement’s response centered on Pete Arredondo, who was fired final week as the college district’s police chief.

Based on the DPS, Arredondo acted as “incident commander” accountable for the general response, although he has stated he didn’t take into account himself the commander on scene.

DPS officers stated 19 officers waited for an hour in a hallway exterior adjoining school rooms the place the gunman was holed up together with his victims earlier than a U.S. Border Patrol-led tactical workforce lastly made entry and killed the suspect.

A report by state lawmakers, launched in July, stated a complete of 376 legislation enforcement officers, together with greater than 90 state police workplaces, rushed to the college in a chaotic scene marked by an absence of clear management and adequate urgency.