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Democracy on the Front Lines
City Administrator’s Blog
Walter Denton
October 12, 2007
There were three more terrifying cases of violence in the news recently in Wisconsin, Cleveland and
Philadelphia. It sounds so impossible yet so familiar compared to other similar events in recent years: a disgruntled loner enters a school/business/house and inexplicably shoots as many people as he can. He is described as a “normal guy” who has no previous record and no perceived propensity for such violence. Signs are usually found that, in retrospect, point to future violence, but for whatever reason are not identified prior to the infamous events. Thankfully, the boy was caught in Philadelphia before he could hurt anyone, but he appeared prepared to do significant damage.
Could something like that happen in O’Fallon? The short answer is “yes, of course.” In general, we live in a quiet, law-abiding community. Our crime rate is very low and we average one homicide about every other year. But O’Fallon is not much different than Crandon, Wisconsin, OTHS is about the same size as Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. We can prepare for an event like this, but we cannot completely prevent it.
Since the Columbine shootings, the O’Fallon Police Department has been working closely with the school districts to develop joint response and communication plans. We collected input from the schools and other community groups when we updated our Emergency Operations Plan last year. We have police officers who have trained with the Illinois Tactical Response Team and have brought their expertise to our police department. We have police officers assigned in the schools to be a visible presence in the halls and be available to listen to students who may be concerned about what someone else may do.
With all of this planning and preparation, we still cannot prevent someone from entering a school, business, or other facility and shooting someone. And if someone does, it will take many officers to lock down the facility.
We would like to protect ourselves from all possible risks, but these incidents remind us that anything can happen anywhere. We have taken steps to prepare for a violent incident at school, but the best prevention is for residents and students to be vigilant in alerting officials to any possible violence. The tip from a student at Philadelphia’s Plymouth Whitemarsh High School saved an untold number of students.
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