Captain Luke Niles, Commander of the Morongo Basin Station of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department was the guest on last week’s Up Close Show, and he discussed the safety of the area’s schools. Reporter Jef Harmatz has a recap of the conversation.
With vague threats of violence against schools going viral at the national level, Captain Niles said that while no specific threats have been made against any schools in California, his department and the Morongo Unified School District have taken precautions.
“We take any threat seriously, investigate it to the fullest extent that we can, but to reiterate, as of right now, we have no credible threats, actually not even any suggested threats, to any of our schools.” – Capt. Luke Niles
Captain Niles explained a program which sees sheriffs assigned to the school district as “resource officers,” serving as both on-duty investigators and community liaisons. When asked if the presence of police officers in schools could be intimidating, Captain Niles said
“Intimidation could be a perception issue, in the beginning. As students interact with the officers selected to be in our schools, I think those barriers come down. They realize that these are some of the better deputies, who are community oriented and care about the kids.” – Capt. Luke Niles
You can hear Captain Niles’ full interview by listening to the Up-Close Show as a podcast on z1077fm.com
