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BY MICHAEL LETTS
Months after the tragic shooting that cost the lives of 19 students and three adults, people are still asking why more wasn’t done to stop it from happening — and, more importantly, why the police didn’t stop it, despite waiting outside due to lack of leadership. Well, apparently the school district has finally said, “Enough is enough.”
Just before the weekend, the district suspended the entire Uvalde police force, with school district Superintendent Hal Harrell announcing that he would retire. There’s no word who will replace Harrell just yet, but that will be discussed by the school board on Monday.
Some may see it as a harsh lesson. But, in the face of tragedy, it’s a necessary one. Here’s why.
The first thing is lack of leadership. That’s a big problem right off the bat, if only because over 300 officers were waiting outside while this gunman hunted down his victims inside the school. And because of that lack of leadership, officers weren’t able to enter the building. (Uvalde previously made the right call in this direction by firing former chief of police Pete Arredondo back in August — something he refused to show up for.)
But here’s another thing – officers had the ability to do the right thing. One even tried to do so when he found out that his wife was among the people being hunted in the school. But he was stopped. Hesitation in the line of duty is never a good thing. You hesitate, and good people can die instantly.
Harrell should’ve had a plan of action. Or, at the very least, given his officers permission to go into the school and try to subdue the suspect instead of letting him carry out his plan. Instead, many were left wondering why they couldn’t do anything. And some even developed an attitude, saying, “If it had been my kid, I wouldn’t be waiting out here.”
Why does that have to be the case? We’ve got officers that have had the proper training to do something on this. And because they didn’t – or in some cases, simply weren’t allowed to — all those people ended up dying. It frustrates me to the core.
As such, I believe suspending the entire police force is a good idea. A controversial one? Absolutely, especially with some saying that a select few were to blame. But if the police failed to do their job, that means all police failed to do their job. Even the ones with best intentions. This is a lesson that will hopefully resonate for future lessons — there should be no hesitation and there should certainly never be any hesitation when it comes to making the right decisions.
That said, the district has called upon more Texas Department of Public Safety troopers to be stationed nearby in campuses and at activities, to assure “that staff and student safety will not be compromised during this transition.”
I do hope that the force takes the time to learn from this situation and become better for it. Obviously there are some officers that will take leave or retire, but those that stay the course will get the proper training to handle situations like this better.
And that’s a good thing, because other officers have already learned from what happened at Uvalde. Across the country, we’re seeing stronger response times by police forces, as well as situations where they risk everything to keep people safe.
I sincerely hope the people of Uvalde recover from this. And also their police department, especially those officers that wanted to do something but were unable to do so. Together, they can move forward with giving the people the safety they absolutely deserve. And, more importantly, the leadership.
Hopefully the school board will think long and hard about who to replace Harrell, and it will be someone that knows how to make the right decisions when they count. I am confident they’ll come to make a choice that, honestly, should have come much, much sooner.
But, at last, Uvalde is moving forward. And, with it, so will the people. And so will their police officers.
(Michael Letts is the Founder, President, and CEO of InVest USA, a national grassroots non-profit organization that is helping hundreds of communities provide thousands of bulletproof vests for their police forces through educational, public relations, sponsorship, and fundraising programs. He also has over 30 years of law enforcement experience under his belt, hence his pro-police stance for his brothers and sisters in blue.)