The Dallas County Sheriff’s Office is now more prepared to handle school emergencies than most other law enforcement agencies around the nation, as they are the second in the United States to install the School Emergency Alert Radio System (SEARS).

Sheriff Chad Leonard says they have successfully installed the radios in 22 school buildings around the County, and training is in progress for officials. Leonard says SEARS is relatively easy to use, and he’s hopeful it will help save lives if an emergency situation were to pop up. “It just takes seconds away from the phone calls and all those type of things. Maybe you’re in a heated conversation and you can’t get away to make that phone call if you’re nervous or whatnot. So you just need to push the button and we know that you’re asking us to head that way. (It’s) kind of a panic alarm type of thing. And it will allow notification to all officers in the area, through the dispatch center basically, to head that way.”

The second phase of the program is still in the works to link lobby cameras to the dispatch center whenever SEARS is activated. Leonard says that should give law enforcement a leg up on being prepared for dangerous situations, since dispatchers will be able to walk them through what they’re seeing on the cameras. To learn more about this and other topics involving the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office, click the link below to listen to the most recent Perry Fareway Let’s Talk Dallas County program with Leonard.

https://raccoonvalleyradio.com/2019/01/lets-talk-dallas-county-1232019-chad-leonard/