The Southlake City Council is buying bullet-resistant shields for its school resource officers (SROs) to improve security at school campuses in the Carroll Independent School District (CISD).
Council members voted on February 7 to spend roughly $156,000 of taxpayer money on 26 rifle-rated ballistic shields from the Plano-based tactical gear and supplies vendor Rules of Engagement Tactical LLC, according to City documents.
The expense, however, will not upset City coffers.
“Southlake PD applied for and received a grant that funds the purchase of the ballistic shields,” a spokesperson for the Southlake Police Department (SPD) told The Dallas Express.
The funding is coming from the 2023 Bullet-Resistant Shield Grant, a pool of $50 million from which Texas law enforcement agencies, school districts, and institutions of higher education can secure money to buy bullet-resistant shields.
The grant is part of the over $105 million in authorized state spending intended to beef up school security in Texas following the Uvalde school shooting last May, as previously reported in The Dallas Express.
“I am proud of the work our staff has put into procuring this grant,” said SPD Chief James Brandon, per a City of Southlake news release. “The purchase of these shields is one more tool that our SROs and patrol officers have to increase safety.”
School security has been a top concern of state and local officials in the months since the massacre in Uvalde. The shooting prompted Gov. Greg Abbott to implement a statewide school audit system to encourage districts to harden their campuses against potential armed intruders intending to commit violence.
Unfortunately, the latest audit found that at least 5% of campuses were still vulnerable, as previously reported in The Dallas Express.
Still, equipping first responders and SROs with ballistic shields is one additional measure that could mitigate active shooter scenarios. However, it is currently unclear how many school districts are taking advantage of the ballistic shield grant.
The Dallas Express reached out to the Dallas Independent School District (DISD) and asked if it knew whether its police department has applied for or plans on applying for ballistic shield funding, but no response was received by press time.
DISD has struggled with keeping its campuses safe, with multiple instances of gunfire reported on school grounds in recent years. This may have contributed to the results of a poll last year that found nearly 50% of respondents believed the district suffered from mismanagement.
The Dallas Express asked SPD if the agency has had to respond to any reports of gunfire at a CISD campus in the last few years.
The spokesperson responded, “No.”
