Rogers County School Resource Officers Train To Handle Campus Threats

Rogers County School Resource Officers are now better prepared to handle threats on campus after training in Inola.

Summer is coming to an end, which is why resource officers are gaining the skills needed to make sure schools remain a safe learning environment.

The Rogers County Sheriff’s Office is tasked with providing Deputies as Resource Officers and knowing what to do when a violent situation occurs requires hours of drills.

“Currently, Rogers County Sheriff’s Office has one school resource officers assigned to every public school district in Rogers County,” RCSO’s Captain Bronson Smith said.

The Sheriff’s Office said establishing fundamentals is a top priority and includes simulating building clearing procedures.

Officers preserve as many details as they can including using simunition and modified firearms.

“We utilize our AR-15 rifles for duty. We just have a drop in bolt carrier that we drop in there and it allows us to use that exact same tool that we use every day on duty in this training,” Smith said.

Direct to threat is the tactic law enforcement uses in active shooter situations. When gunshots are heard, officers are rushing toward them to save lives.

“You don’t need to wait for a SWAT team in an event like that. The officer goes and they address the threat and hopefully saves lives,” Smith said.

Deputies are learning a program called Law Enforcement Active Shooter Emergency Response (LASER).

The Sheriff's Office said the program teaches how to aid victims and effectively communicate through chaos.

LASER not only instructs how to identify and eliminate threats, it also teaches reunification for students and their families, which the Sheriff's Office said can also be used in other emergencies like natural disasters.