This school district in California now has a military-grade ARMORED TRUCK just like the ones US soldiers ride to combat in Afghanistan. While we could chide the chief for wanting this in case of a major food fight, we feel the defensive reason for having this armored truck available for rescue is valid.
The school district’s police chief, Rueben Littejohn, says the truck is intended to be used as a rescue vehicle that could evacuated [sic] up to 40 children in the event of an emergency.
Meanwhile here’s the “expert” point of view.
School safety expert Robert Macy disagrees.
‘A school that has someone in charge of the school safety plan and someone in charge of what you do when someone is on campus and they practice the protocols — you are going to get more mileage out of that than many armed vehicles,’ Macy, who heads the International Trauma Center, told VICE News.
‘It’s not as easy as putting big heavy weaponry on campus.’
‘A tank is cartoonish,’ he added. ‘It gives the school a false sense of security.’
We don’t know where they found this “expert” but we’d send him back. First it’s not a tank. Second safety plans and protocols aren’t going to stop bullets. Third it’s been stripped of all weaponry.
This post was last modified on September 14, 2014
View Comments (19)
Armed response to those fast attack brownies that were banned in Vermont.
The school district has their OWN police department??? WTF? This should be an embarrassment even to liberal-loons. No doubt they need a "police department" and perhaps a squad of Army Special Forces to deal with the crap that loony liberals have caused in schools.
Sorry, I my day, the school police department was one of the shot teachers or Phys Ed teachers who kicked your ass, and trust me, we didnt go home and whine and snivel that Mr. So and So kicked my ass for no reason at all. Nope dad wasn't buying the no reason at all b.s. and likely followed up with an ass kicking of his own because you caused the teacher some grief. Now in loony land, it's massive lawsuits and media outrage resulting in total chaos in schools.
If my kids were still in "school" you can bet your ass they would be in private school even if I would have to work three jobs....and I most likely would in order to pay for it.
Sadly many do these days.
We had the dreaded visit to the principal's office and the dreaded paddle on the ass. The worst part was all the razzing you got afterwards. If I would have told my dad I got the paddle he would have laughed his ass off.
Somehow this seems self aggrandizing.
I've got a better usage for the equipment. Give it to the Border Patrol and keep on using it. Then it will make enforcing the US Immigration laws easier. This makes too much sense that it will be totally ignored.
Obama would never agree to do anything useful at the border.
Yes they can shoot beanbags out the windows when ISIS crosses.
So Up-Armour a couple big buses.....Seriously this has no place in a School P.D.
I have had experience with those organizations, and they are more like report taking security guards who always find crap going on and call the local P.D. because they are not trained to handle it.
I don't know about other states but law enforcement should be contracted to the local P.D. or Sheriff. Sorry to say but the majority of school cops I have met remind me of Paul Blart...
This cost only $5,000 shipping cost. What would it cost to Up-Armour a couple of buses?
OK so you have experience with some of them. All of them? Isn't this like generalizing that all cops eat donuts and weigh 350 pounds?
There's plenty of regular PD organizations (or cops in them) that look like Paul Blart, too.
About ten years ago, I got assigned to a team that evaluated a bunch of school district police departments. The reason was the Stockton School district police department was an absolute mess, and they wanted us to contract out School Resource Officer positions. On team did cost analysis, my team went out and look at them.
A number of them has lost their state accreditation, several had lost the ability to even carry a weapon and were basically security guards. Out of about 20 departments in California, only one was equal to a regular P.D. The Los Angeles Unified School District Police. Trained with and by LAPD. In fact I met a lieutenant there you might remember as Jim Reed in Adam 12. He actually became a cop after the show and worked for LAUSPD.
A number of these police departments were under grand jury scrutiny, some where out taking calls that the local metro PD's were suppose to handle and would cause a mess, one in Northern California was making it a point to tow cars and charging outrageous fees for the owner to get the vehicle released and they were using the money to pay for cars, guns, a Humvee, and all kinds of stuff.
The problems show when the School District PD's have a serious lag time in response because they are out on calls away from the schools.
A number of them had no regular training, and a few more were hiring officers who had been fired for various reasons from other police departments.
Budgets were cut and raised on a whim, political bullshit ruled the day with the police departments basically under the thumb of the superintendent of that school district,
School district police departments (as a whole in California) have issues. When I was in Stockton we had serious officer safety issues that were addressed by having them stay away from calls for service we were involved in. One incident had one of their officers pointing a rifle at the backs of our guys while he was in a tree on a call of a crazy guy breaking his windows out. Our guys were directly in the line of fire.
I have been to training with a number of folks from college PD's too. they seems somewhat better trained but still have the same political and money issues as School Districts.
I Saw enough to stand by what I said.
IN fairness, there are municipal police departments that also have their share of issues. I have worked for big and small and each has it's own problems. And I never looked at San Diego, I was assigned the L.A. School District police.
But one major problem, if you talking about an active shooter, how long does it take for this thing to respond given the large area SDUSD covers? To get any vehicle up and moving takes time. This thing can't respond like a patrol car. Even when I have been involved in SWAT callouts, it takes time to get the guys and vehicles to the scene, and one of Murphy's laws is that any police response that requires a lot of officers, will be at the farthest end of your beat.
I also had the occasion to use a bus to help get kids of ouf a school, I took the bus from the driver (she was not happy) and we used it as a shield to get kids out of a classroom. If there was going to be shooting, let them shoot the bus it can be replaced.
This seems like a great idea, but the cost, response time and distance involved may make it unable to complete any mission.
I'll acquiesce. Based upon that perhaps it's better they drive in with one of these than shoot their way in.
Paul Blart, but not as smart.
Something seems a bit off here. The San Diego Unified School District has 132,256 Students, and only 1 truck that can save 40 children.
http://www.localschooldirectory.com/district-schools/3768338/San-Diego-Unified-School-District/CA
Just exactly how do they choose which kids to save, and which to let die?
I think the money would have been better spent arming the teachers and training them to shoot.
They should get more, arm the teachers, get actual ex police officers and ex military. Maybe get the kids that are closest to the area of fire out is what they are going for here.
I doubt every school in the district would be under attack at one time. I agree arming and training is a good way to go , but good luck in California.
Best case scenario, 400 students per school, so you save 40 and let 360 die? Who's betting the 40 in the vehicle end up being better than half, teachers union members?
Again, this is California. You're not going to get armed teachers. This isn't Texas.
Instead of letting vehicles like that to rot is good to put them to good use. It can and should be kept out of sight and when they can they should get another one for 80 kids to have a chance at a time. It looks... jarring sure and it is sad, but itis what it is.