New Measures Being Taken for Safety

In the past several years, there have been reports of violence in schools or universities. Some that come to mind include Columbine, Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook, and, recently earlier in the year, University of California at Santa Barbara that resulted in 7 deaths and 13 injuries.

What could be on the mind of most that attend Texas A&M International University, may be the question: ‘Am I safe?’

In a special interview with Juan Castillo, Vice-President of Finance and Administration, and Gabriel Dominguez, Safety Risk Manager, this was the main topic of conversation. The general response to the earlier questions was positive for TAMIU.

The most recent emergency plan, the 2012-2013 version, is available through UConnent for employees. “The emergency plan tries to cover hypotheticals; you try to think and make it as general as possible,” said VP Castillo when asked if the plan covers situations similar to the recent school shootings, “[But] the reality is, until you are in a situation you do not know exactly what is going to happen.”

A more recent update TAMIU has invested in is with a mass notification system. Over the course of one and a half years, and recently completed the summer of 2012, the campus upgraded the fire alarms system and added voice notifications with pre-recorded messages for several types emergencies like fire, bomb threat, or active shooter. This included adding two large speaker arrays—one on top of the Fine and Performing Arts and the other on top of the Lamar Bruni Vergara—that people who are outside of the building and may not be able to hear the notifications inside the buildings, are able hear.

During the spring 2014 semester, specifically in February, TAMIU held drills in every building and included students, so that students could learn what is needed to be done during a fire drill, a typical evacuation. “In the years to come, we will do a shelter-in-place [and] a lock-down; we will do different drills so that people can become familiar with it,” VP Castillo mentioned of potential plans.

During orientation, incoming students will go through active shooter training, which is similar to the yearly training that university employees go through every year. However, what was noticed of the drills that happened in February and pointed out to VP Castillo and Manager Dominguez, was that because the drills happen at similar times but in different buildings it could potentially limit which students learn about the emergency plans since the campus operates from early morning to evening.

A good practice, is that TAMIU police department maintains relationships with surrounding agencies, mostly with Laredo and Laredo I.S.D. police departments. “We do have memorandums of understanding with other law enforcement that basically we say ‘Hey, if something happens, will you help us?’” said VP Castillo. This is clearly a good way to be able to potentially handle diverse situations that can occur on campus. “Several years ago, we changed our [TAMIU PD] radios, so that the radios our officers have now have interoperability—which, since 9/11 has been a big thing.”

“By changing the channel, we can communicate with LPD, US Border Patrol, Laredo Fire Department and some of the Feds.” The university PD also has the ability to the Dusty Alert—which can also activated by TAMIU’s Public Relations department. The upgrades that TAMIU recently went through, also updated the Dusty Alert that activates digital signage, a crawl on the university computer screens, and social media.

What most may not know, is that recently the university police department has or will receive assault rifles and have already received assault rifle certification. “Obviously, when you do have an active shooter, you don’t you know what kind of weaponry they’ll have but to approach with a handgun is not as effective.”

“This is something that we take our cues from what chief thinks is best, and he requested that and we have moved forward with [getting them].” There was reassurance that they are secured and not on display but that if we have a need for them, if the situation required the use of the assault rifles, they would be available.

The university should feel confident that they do know and understand what is happening around the United States in other campus. However, there may be some concern as to how far they will take it. The new PA system with voice notification is a great solution; but, is arming the police department with assault rifles when there is constant communication with local enforcement that has access to such measures a correct measure? This is a decision that students and the community will have to decide on.