Pawhuska Police Taking New Precautions For Active School Shooters

A Green Country police force and school district are taking a unique step to improve school safety.

Tuesday, August 20th 2019, 11:35 pm



A Green Country police force and school district are taking a unique step to improve school safety.

Pawhuska schools and police are taking action this year and making the communication from schools and the police department instant.

Police and schools have joined forces to give each school a handheld radio and directly communicate with police.

They say they never hope to see a shooting happen in their town, but if it does they're ready for it.

The hallways and parking lots are empty still at Pawhuska schools, but all summer long police and school officials have been working toward safety.

"I felt there was obvious problems in the past with school shootings and active shooter events," said Chief Nick Silva. "Callers were delayed by going through dispatch and the police were not aware of the current suspect location."

Silva thought there had to be an easier way.

"What we're able to do now is, each school will have a handheld radio that has direct communication with the police department," he said. "There will be a designated person in the school that can communicate if something were to emerge."

Something like an active shooter threat.

"To say it won't happen here is living in denial," Silva said. "We're being prepared and preparing for the worst."

Silva got together with school leaders to buy five radios at $500 each. The high school, middle and elementary school will have them, and he's even working on raising money to get them for the Head start programs.

"With that direct contact, we can ask where the suspect ism where are shots coming from, where do we need to go?"

Silva says he's not aware of other schools doing the same thing. He just wants to continue being proactive.

The superintendent said the radios should be in by Thursday, which is when classes begin.

Chief Silva said he wants to host a charity ballgame with the fire department to raise the money needed for radios in the head start programs.

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