Mayor, Police, School Leaders To Unveil School Security Assessment

On Wednesday Mayor Bill Finch, Police Chief Joe Gaudett and Superintendent of Schools Paul Vallas will discuss details of a security assessment at the School Security Command Center, 1085 Connecticut Avenue. Bridgeport Police spokesman Bill Kaempffer provides some advance details:

Since the beginning of the school year, the Police Department worked with the Board of Education to complete a comprehensive review of security at every school in the city, both public and private.

“It was an enormous undertaking, but this effort has made our schools, I believe, the most secure in the state,” said Mayor Bill Finch. “I can’t say enough about the collaboration and work that went into this. The tragedy in Newtown reinforced for us that we were doing was essential. To learn, kids need to feel safe.”

The work started after the Police Department took over control of school police, which previously came under the control of the Board of Education.

Since then:

• The city created a state-of-the-art security command center where police can remotely monitor on large monitors security cameras in any city school. Moving forward, the city looks to transition to powerful Milestone security platform software that will allow police, among other features, to remotely lock doors at any school in an emergency.

• Officials visited every school and, working with staff, reviewed emergency plans to ensure they followed best practices and updated or created the plans as needed. Officials also inventoried all security equipment–cameras, access key systems–and worked with Sonitrol electronic security to establish recommendations for any needed security enhancements, including placing panic buttons in key locations in every school that would immediately alert police to a problem.

• Police participated in lockdown drills at schools to make sure staff understood and was comfortable with procedures.

• Every school resource officer has completed “active shooter” training from trained emergency services trainers–twice. To date, 85 percent of school security guards completed ALICE training. ALICE stands for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, and Escape.

• As part of regular training, Bridgeport’s Emergency Services Unit will train in city schools to familiarize members with the floor plan. ESU already has blueprints for all schools.

“This truly was a comprehensive, exhaustive assessment,” said Police Chief Joseph L. Gaudett Jr. “We didn’t want to wait for an incident, minor or major, to learn about some security issue at a school. It was essential that every school have its plan in order–and that staff and students feel safe and confident that they will know what to do.”

Bridgeport Public Schools consist of 31 elementary schools, three comprehensive high schools, three alternative/opportunity programs and an inter-district vocational aquaculture school. Our schools serve more than 21, 000 students, making Bridgeport the second largest school system in Connecticut. The school system employs a professional staff of more than 1,700.