Abington Township Police Chief Discusses School Safety Following Texas Mass Shooting

ABINGTON, PA — The chief of the Abington Township Police Department has released a statement to the local community after a gunman earlier this week went on a deadly rampage at a Texas elementary school, reassuring the public that local police work in conjunction with school officials to help keep kids in this eastern Montgomery County community safe.

Police Chief Patrick Molloy began by offering his "sincere condolences to all the families impacted by this unspeakable tragedy in Texas."

"The pain and suffering in that community is unimaginable, and our thoughts and prayers will remain with everybody impacted," Molloy said.

Molloy said that there have been a lot of questions on social media and elsewhere following the Texas shooting about what Abington Township Police are doing to protect local children here in southeastern Pennsylvania.

He said since 1998, the Abington Police Department and the Abington School District have collaborated on various programs designed to provide resources and safety to students.

He highlighted the SRO, or School Resource Officer, program, which has been around since the late 1990s, and involves officers being assigned to both the junior high and high school campuses.

"They are there primarily to be a resource, but they are also there as armed, skilled security prepared to respond immediately to threats," Molloy said.

He said those officers are "on location and prepared to immediately respond to an active threat, and stop anybody from harming our children or our staff."

Molloy also highlighted the D.A.R.E. program at local elementary schools, which also involves armed officers being onsite at schools if the need should ever arise to have armed response to a threat at the lower school levels.

"They are guardians, and they are there to help," Molloy said.

Molly said during the past few days, he has been in talks with Jeffrey Fecher, the superintendent of the Abington Township School District, looking at ways to improve security at local schools in the wake of the Texas mass shooting.

One decision that was made was to temporarily increase police presence in and near school buildings for the next couple of weeks as the country reels from the tragedy in the Lone Star State.

The full video can be viewed here on YouTube.