A message from Chief DeVaul on school security Preparedness in Takoma Park

Our hearts are with the families of the children and teachers who lost their lives in the senseless act of gun violence in Uvalde, Texas, earlier this week.

There have been several questions about the tactics utilized by law enforcement in the incident in Uvalde. As the investigation of that incident and response continues, I wanted to update residents on our preparedness should an incident occur in Takoma Park. I want to stress there are no active threats to any schools in Takoma Park.

The City of Takoma Park Police Department has an Emergency Response Team (ERT). Officers on the ERT received advanced training in emergency response. In addition to the ERT, all of our officers have been trained on active shooter response. We have also conducted training drills at our schools, so we are familiar with the layout of the schools should an incident occur. Our officers are trained to immediately address and subdue any threat in an active shooter incident. We regularly train this response protocol.

We meet regularly with staff at all of our schools in Takoma Park to discuss security and other issues. Since the incident in Texas, we have been in contact with MCPS staff to ensure all security measures are in place to prevent and respond to any possible incident.

Hopefully, our training is something that we will never need to utilize here in Takoma Park. However, if an active shooter incident were to occur in Takoma Park, we are well prepared to respond.

We are committed to supporting, serving, and protecting our residents here in Takoma Park.

Please feel free to reach out to me directly if you have any questions or concerns.