Immediate and Overwhelming

I'm still trying to sort out the mess at Apalachee High School in Georgia, but a few things reveal themselves.

The school had two resource officers assigned, and by all accounts, they did a magnificent job.  Yes, four people were killed, but the shooter wanted many more victims.  We will be studying this shooting for years, just as we study Uvalde, Parkland, and Columbine, and hopefully we will learn lessons from it.  One big take-away is that Apalachee already had officers on the ground. 

In an active shooting, every second counts. Within minutes the resource officers had located, identified and attacked, taking the shooter into custody and beginning the life-saving response.  Tragically, four people died, but it could have been much, much, worse.

I spent 16 years as a resource officer.  I don't know how many lives I saved, because it is impossible to know how many bed ideas were thwarted simply because I was there.  It's impossible to know.  I do know that resource officers take a psychological beating, because hanging out at a school is not exciting, it's not "real police work".  I do know that I once put a step-counter on my belt, and that I was covering about five miles a day on my beat.  Yes, I did investigations, yes, I made arrests,   The thing that I am nost proud of is that no one died during my tenure, and only two people were tragically injured.  One, the result of an accident, the other  the result of a grab-ass incident that got out of hand.  

The resource officers at Apalachee did a hell of a job.