In the aftermath of the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, last May Artesia Chief of Police Kirk Roberts studied what worked well for law enforcement and what didn’t work well. Could the lessons learned in Uvalde be applied to preparedness plans in Artesia?

 

“I saw what worked well in Uvalde and realized we need a wider range of things we can do quickly,” said Chief Roberts. “I saw the effectiveness of ballistic shields. Then I thought back to my time in the military and got an idea.”

 

Roberts’ idea was equipping Artesia schools with ballistic blankets for use in an active shooter situation. A ballistic blanket is a bullet-resistant body cover made to protect against bullets and projectiles. They are designed to be quickly and easily thrown over windows, doors, and walls, and can be quickly deployed for various risk situations including evacuation, perimeter defense, clearance, vehicle transport, and other personal shield uses.

 

The next step was figuring out how to finance the ballistic shields and blankets. “We had several donors, who wished to stay anonymous, step forward to finance them,” said Roberts. Three ballistic shields have been purchased and are housed in discreet school locations and every school in Artesia is now, or soon will be, equipped with two ballistic blankets.  “Those donors provided $50,000 for the ballistic shields and blankets to make the Artesia schools a safer place for our students,” said Roberts. He does not know of any other school district with similar equipment. “We truly live in a very generous community, and we are grateful,” he said.

Caption: Photo is of a sample ballistic blanket and is courtesy of Apex Global.