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Decatur County School Police have been hard at work devising a plan with the Decatur County Sheriff’s Office and Bainbridge Public Safety to increase response times in the event of school emergencies.

In order to accomplish this, the School Police led the DCSO and BPS on a walkthrough of Bainbridge Middle School, Bainbridge High School and Hutto Elementary School on Thursday afternoon and Friday morning.

According to School Police Sergeant Marvin Knight, they try to do walkthroughs every year, because officers and deputies who transfer in from other agencies may have never seen the layout of the schools.

“We have to familiarize everyone with it,” he said.

During the walkthroughs, School Police officers ask deputies and BPS officers to point out anything they notice in regard to safety and how they can improve.

Knight said one of the main things they have been encouraged to focus on is the safety of the school perimeter.

“We will be stepping up and increasing our exterior perimeter checks around the blocks within 1,000 feet of the school especially,” Knight said.

With the addition of two new school police officers, the perimeter checks should not be an issue.
Knight said they plan to begin interviewing officers next week for the positions.

Even with the new officers, Knight said he sincerely thanks all the other agencies who help when called upon and for keeping them vigilant at all the schools.