New radios give Greenwood schools direct link to police
Continuing its efforts to improve safety and emergency response to events that would occur at the Greenwood School District, the district announced that it has added two police band radios to its collection of safety tools. With these radios, response time to a serious emergency at either of the two Greenwood school buildings is expected to be reduced.
According to elementary principal Joe Green, the two police band radios are the first radios of their kind to be used by a Clark County school district. The presence of these radios at school districts across Wisconsin has been rising in recent years in response to school shootings, and Green said it was a tool he thought would be good to have in the case of such an emergency.
“They’re not used anywhere else in the county that I know of, but I anticipate others to follow,” he said. “I have had this in a previous district, and they are used to increase response time to schools in case of an emergency.”
With his past experiences with these radios, Green contacted Greenwood Police Chief Bernie Bock and Clark County Sheriff’s Department Patrol Captain Charles Ramberg to see if they would be interested in helping the district get the equipment.
“It came from elementary principal Joe Green,” said Bock. “We got on board with it. Anything we can do to lower response time, the better off we are.”
Bock said in a typical emergency situation, a caller dials 911 and informs the dispatcher about the situation, with that information being passed on to law enforcement. With the radios, he said dispatch will still be reached, but all police officers in Clark County will hear the information at the same time, cutting down on response time.
“For every law enforcement officer, I will hear it in my squad car directly. It won’t just be dispatch,” he said. “It cuts out some of the middle man. Some statistics, these are from a couple years ago, but every 30 seconds an active shooter is on the scene there’s another fatality. Time is of the essence.”
Besides cutting down on response time, Green and Bock said the radios will also give staff members a more reliable and safer way to call in a serious emergency.
“These radios will help decrease response time,” said Green. “They are more portable than a landline and do not require anyone to dial numbers in a time of extremely high stress. They can also be taken to other events such as athletic events, concerts, high school dances, et cetera.”
“Instead of someone dialing 911, when they’re going out of the school they can grab the radio and tell us what’s going on while on the move,” added Bock.
Bock said because the purpose of the radios is to contact law enforcement directly, the radios will only ever be used in the case of a serious emergency where lives are at stake. By using the radios in those cases, he said not only will response time be reduced, but all law enforcement in the county will know the same information and will be able to better respond when they arrive on the scene.
“These are not to be used if a student wants to leave class, but only for a legitimate reason i.e. an active shooter or someone bypassing security and we don’t know what they’re up to,” said Bock. “The Greenwood School has my cell phone, and they contact me directly in a lot of cases, but I want them to use the radio so that every officer in Clark County will be able to know what’s going on and I’ll know that the cavalry is coming … I hope it never gets used, in case of an active shooter, this is crucial. No one ever wants to see this situation, but we want to be prepared in the event it does happen.”
The two radios cost about $1,500 each and were purchased by the Greenwood School District through grant funds from the Wisconsin Department of Justice the district received last year. Staff members at both the elementary and high school level were trained how to use the radios and they will be available at both buildings if a serious emergency, such as an active shooter, ever occurs.
“The radios were ordered through the county,” said Green. “Chief Bock delivered the radios and provided office staff with training. The School District has a great relationship with our law enforcement partners and are very appreciative of their support for our district. We hope to never have to use these radios, but we will continue to find ways to increase the safety and security for our students and staff.”
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