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| Worcester Co. Sheriff's Office |
As your Sheriff, and being the top Law Enforcement Official in our County, it is my job to keep the citizens in Worcester County Safe. I feel that we have one of the safest counties in our state. We have the best group of Chief's of Police, MSP Berlin Barrack Commanders, States Attorney, Police Officers, Troopers and Deputy Sheriff's. Their combined work is outstanding.
When the tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut occurred, my Chief Deputy Dale Smack and I were on the phone to each Chief and the MSP Barrack Commander asking them to assist us in making patrol checks and foot patrols at our schools for their opening and closing of each day and to conduct random spot checks throughout the day when they could. I have nothing but praise for all of the law enforcement agencies in this county. We have all put our resources together to help make our schools as safe as possible; however we all felt that we could do a better job of protecting our schools.
Dr. Wilson and I met in my office to address security issues and together, we formed a school security committee, comprised of School Administrators, Principals, Health Department Officials and my staff. Each school was visited and a site assessment was conducted by Col. Dods and Steve Price from the Board of Education. New measures have already been put in place and we will continue to review each school to make more improvements for the teachers and students so they can feel safe while at their schools.
Dr. Wilson and I came to the conclusion that the schools in our county needed a Deputy Sheriff's presence at all of the 13 public schools. At a cost of less than $600,000, we have been able to place part-time deputies and two full time deputies at these schools. They have been trained in Active Shooter Response and how to deal with an immediate threat and quickly end it. We concluded that it takes time to assemble tactical trained teams and in the event of an Active Shooter, significant damage can occur in seconds. These seconds count. Just ask those parents and communities of Newtown, Virginia Tech and Columbine. My Active Shooter Trainers have also trained your local police in our program. This was done so everyone would be on the same page and would know what to do should such an incident occur. As with anything, our plans are not 100%. However, if we chose to do nothing, we would have not created a viable deterrent should and incident occur. I feel our children deserve our best protection we can offer. I am concerned for our children as they are so precious and innocent. As a member of this community, if I had a child or grandchild in our schools, I would want our schools protected by a Deputy Sheriff.
My Job as your Sheriff is to face these problems such as School Security or anything that pertains to law enforcement and solve it before it escalates.
Sheriff Reggie Mason
Worcester County Sheriff's Office
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