Cleveland SROs discuss their school safety plans

CLEVELAND, Tenn. (WDEF) – School safety has been in the forefront of many conversations in the recent weeks.

The Cleveland Police Department says they are no exception.

Sgt. Bobby Ruth says, “We want our SRO’s to be experts in their school we went from you know safety vulnerabilities, to what can be improved, to good practices.”

These officers say that they work really hard to tailor make these plans for the different schools. Every officer is constantly updating their plans with the latest information.

Sgt. Ruth says, “They may do something at their school that we don’t do it our schools. He comes across as well maybe we should start doing that and that is a good safe practices that we can put in place.”

Their presentations covered the schools demographics, safe zones and pre-planning for special needs students.

Sgt. Bobby Ruth says the officers used their prior police knowledge and their knowledge of their community to build these plans on top of other certifications.

“All of our SR us go to a basic SRO school for certification before they become an SRO,” says Sgt. Ruth.

He says they practice with the students by going through fire drills, tornado drills as well as armed intruder drills.

Sgt. Ruth believes, “In today’s time kids get it and I know that’s kind of harsh but kids get it you don’t have to explain it to them in depth, you just tell them what to do in case something like that happens.

The police department posted to Facebook that Chief Mark Gibson says he is confident in the abilities of the School Resource Officers assigned to our city schools.

He says the officers truly care about their students and the staff they have vowed to protect and encourages you to thank an officer when you see them.