School Security at Utica City School District
By: Stephen Bond
Updated: December 17, 2012
The flag outside Albany School flew at half-staff today, in recognition of Friday's tragic events. The violence has raised numerous questions including... Is the school my child attends safe? The Utica City school district uses school resource officers to ensure school safety. And these Utica Police Officers are constantly trying to prepare for the unknown.
Sgt. Hiram Rios of the Utica Police Department says, "When something like this happens, it raises your eyebrows as you mentioned, but we're ready. Constant training with active shooter with homeland security and that gives us an edge on how to perform and what to do in situations of that nature."
Officers in Connecticut used "active shooter" status in response to the shooting and the Utica police department is also trained in active shooter in case the unthinkable were to happen.
Sgt. Rios added, "We have our plans in effect and we stick by our guidelines on a daily basis. Our training sets us up that way, that's the way we train and that's the way we're always going to train, if something were to happen we're ready."
