Police presence will increase in some Houston-area districts as school year begins

Law enforcement officials are preparing to increase on-campus police presence in Houston-area districts as the school year begins for students in Alief ISD, Hull-Daisetta ISD, Humble ISD and New Caney ISD. In addition to specific plans made by the school district’s police departments, Harris County Precinct 4 Constable Mark Herman said his department would dedicate hundreds of additional deputies to schools throughout the year. “My office has already begun authorizing personnel, equipment — different types of equipment — to in and around these ISD’s, depending on the needs of each police chief and their staff,” Herman said.

Herman added that he’s confident that his department will be able to provide the number of deputies requested by each district before the school year begins. Additionally, Herman said that his department has a sufficient amount of rifles and ballistic plate shields in order to adequately respond to an active-shooter situation. The effort will be focused on school districts in Harris County Precinct 4 — Spring, Tomball, Klein, Cy-Fair, Humble and Aldine — as well as daycares and private schools in the area. “We are unified as one to work together as a team to accomplish the safety of the community and more importantly our kids,” said Tomball PD Captain Brandon Patin. This comes after Houston ISD Superintendent Millard House II last week said that the HISD Police Department’s “officers would not have been prepared” for a shooting similar to what occurred in Uvalde earlier this year, when an 18-year-old gunman killed 19 children and two adults inside of an elementary school classroom. HISD’s board of trustees is expected to vote on proposed expenditures of more than $100,000 for rifles, ammunition and ballistic plate shields this week.