Allen ISD has approved a contract that will provide 17 armed private security guards to protect campuses that previously did not have a dedicated school resource officer.
The district’s board of trustees voted on Monday to enter into a one-year agreement with Dallas-based L&P Global Security, spending $694,000 of taxpayer money on the contract.
“I will say that the training as far as active shooter training, civilian response to active shooter, those things, the alert system, they use it. They use the exact same systems, the exact same training that our first responders would,” said Allen ISD’s assistant superintendent of operations, Brent Benningfield, NBC 5 DFW reported.
Trustees moved to approve the contract ahead of the start of the 2023-2024 school year, when a new state law requiring an armed guard to be stationed at every public school campus in the state takes effect.
“The L&P company agreed to structure this much like [a school resource officer] program and have a consistent officer at each elementary day after day. … We would have a consistent person at each campus to be able to develop those relationships and have consistent practices,” Benningfield said, according to NBC 5.
“They also have a plan for subs that if one of those individuals is out of illness or things, we have appropriated subs. … In addition to that, they will provide us with a sergeant as a point of contact and someone to oversee the program. … Every single one of these officers that we would receive security will be level three commissioned,” Benningfield said, per NBC 5.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, some school districts in North Texas have been struggling to find enough officers to protect their students and staff — including Dallas ISD.
“It’s just very challenging right now … in the profession to hire additional officers, to find qualified people that are willing to do the job,” Dallas ISD Police Chief John Lawton said at a Dallas ISD school board meeting in May.
Robyn Harris, executive director of strategic engagement and crisis communications for Dallas ISD, previously told The Dallas Express that the district plans to be in full compliance with the law by the time the 2023-2024 school year starts, suggesting that most of the campuses that did not have armed security guards last school year were elementary schools.
While the law does not take effect until September 1, Allen ISD’s contract with the security company starts on August 10.
“We need to be in pursuit of compliance by September 1st. The best thing to do is to provide that security for our students and staff. Why would we wait a month to provide it when they’re already in the building?” Benningfield remarked, per NBC 5.
In addition to requiring an armed security guard at every school, the State of Texas also commissioned an intruder audit of campuses across the state. As previously reported by The Dallas Express, auditors were able to gain unauthorized access to about 5% of schools. Furthermore, approximately a quarter of audited campuses had security failures that required corrective action.
