GPD chief discusses active shooter situation procedures

Graham Police Department Chief Brent Bullock presented to the Graham City Council Thursday the procedures the department takes for active shooters as requested by Mayor Neal Blanton in response to the Uvalde shooting in May.

The chief explained an overview of how the department responds to an active shooter incident and how each Graham ISD campus is involved to keep children safe. Bullock stated to the council that the department does not primarily discuss their procedures, but Thursday provided an overview of the active shooter procedures, minus the tactics involved.

“(Our policy), basically putting it pretty bluntly (is) that officers are to go,” Bullock said. “(...) we learned from Columbine, we don’t wait on SWAT, we don’t wait on command, we don’t wait for anyone to get there. Every officer in our department is bound by duty and policy to respond, whether it’s the first one there, second one, or third one there. But the tactics that we put in place (are) for the second one that comes in and the third one comes in. So for the Graham Police Department, our policy and procedures, there is no waiting. We go immediately and basically just neutralize the threat and save a lot of our kiddos.”

Chief Bullock said all new officers are introduced by School Resource Officer Blake Davis into Graham ISD and to the administration. Officer Davis also serves as the Civilian Response to Active Shooter Events (CRASE) instructor for non-school related incident response.

“He comes in and puts on a program to show private businesses and people what to do in the event of an active shooter,” Bullock said. “I think his last one he did was at Southern Bleacher that called and asked him to come by and so he sat down with a core group of people there and just kind of went through this program and explained it. He basically explains what to do if an active shooter does come into your building. So a lot of education we do behind the scenes with CRASE. And he also teaches that to all the school teachers at the beginning of school. I think he’s probably really got (...) most all the teachers (trained) at this point, but he also does it with the students.”

For the full story, see the Saturday, June 11 edition of The Graham Leader.